Lcpidoptera 337 



case and swims to the surface of the water. It often meets with difficulty 

 in breaking through the surface film, and may, after a brief struggle, 

 fall exhausted to the bottom. 



The slender, straw-yellow adults may be placed on emergence in an 

 aquarium cage having a celluloid window for observation in one side 

 of the wirecloth top, and a sleeve for ingress and egress at the other 

 (see figure 61 on page 268). They cling immobile to the sides and the 

 top of the cage during the day, and run about the walls in the early 

 evening, rarely flying. 



J. G. N. 



Order lepidoptera 



A METHOD OF COLLECTING LIVING MOTHS 

 AT SUGAR BAIT* 



IN COLLECTING adults of the army worm and other moths for ovi- 

 position studies, a simple method of capture at baits was found useful. 

 [See also p. 364.] An electric flashlight, having a flat lens, was used 

 with a flat-bottomed vial % inch in diameter, straight-sided and about 5 

 inches deep. When the bottom of the vial is placed against the lens of 

 the flashlight both may be firmly grasped in the right hand. The en- 

 circling fingers prevent the spread of light rays to the sides while full 

 illumination is given in a narrow beam through the bottom of the vial. 

 When this is placed over or close to a moth feeding at bait, the tend- 

 ency of the moth is to dash towards the light. Entering the vial, it goes 

 at once to the bottom and does not try to escape. The vial may be 

 closed with a cork or the moth may be examined before the vial is closed 

 and, if not wanted, it may be allowed to escape by moving the vial from 

 the light. A number of vials may be carried in a coat pocket and a 

 number of individual moths collected in a short time. In the closed vial 

 the moths remain quiet for a number of hours and may be removed to 

 breeding cages. 



The same method was found useful in collecting the large and shy 

 Catocala moths. A wide-mouthed bottle was used in this case, the 

 flashlight directed through the bottle, and chloroform or cyanide placed 

 in holes in the cork. [See also p. 364.] 



Reference 



Family Eucleidae 



For rearing see p. 365. 



♦Reprinted, with slight changes, from Canad. Ent. 60:103. 1928, by R. P. Gorham, 

 Dominion Ent. Lab., Fredericton, X. B. 



