204 The Ottawa Naturalist [March 



A NIGHT'S COLLECTING FOR. MOTHS AT MEECH 



LAKE, QUE.* 



Arthur Gibson. 



On the invitation of Mr. C. H. Young, I paid a visit to the 

 above charming- place on the evening of the 14th of August last. 

 Leaving Ottawa on the evening train I was met at Chelsea by 

 Mr. Young, and after a lovely drive of half an hour or so, we 

 reached his cottage on the west shore of Meech Lake. As it was 

 my first visit to this delightful, uncrowded, summer resort, I en- 

 joyed the outing immensely and only regretted that I could not 

 spare the time to stay longer. 



After we had attended to the inner man, we immediately be- 

 gan to arrange our poison bottles and other collecting apparatus. 

 This done, we started out to " sugar " a number of trees, which 

 had already been used by Mr. Young for that purpose. The term 

 "sugar" has a special entomological meaning; the " sugar " 

 itself is a mixture of molasses and sour beer, which is smeared on 

 to the trunks of trees, fence posts, etc., at dusk, for the purpose 

 of attracting moths belonging chiefly to the family Noctuidae. 

 Some collectors thin the molasses by adding a small quantity of 

 rum or brandy, but the sour beer is just as good, and is cheaper. 

 This method of collecting moths will be found to give the best 

 results on warm, moist, cloudy nights. As soon as we had 

 sugared about thirty trees, and placed our poison bottles in con- 

 venient pockets, we started out on the first round. When two 

 are sugaring it is always best for one to hold the dark lantern, 

 while the other does the bottling, or catching. Care must be 

 taken not to direct the light too strongly, or too suddenly, upon 

 the tree bearing the mixture ; if this is done many of the moths 

 will be frightened away. It is also well to have several good 

 poison bottles on hand, to be used alternately after four or five 

 specimens have been caught. 



On completing our first round, we emptied our catch into a 

 large poison bottle and were then ready to make the trip again. 

 After having gone the rounds about five times and deposited our 



* Read at meeting- of Entomologfical Branch, 19 January, igo.-^. 



