1902 Entomology in AiUumn 285 



Entomology in Autumn. 



By Claude Morley, F.E.S., &c. 



The autumn calls up a curious mixture of feelings to the 

 entomologist. If he be wise, he fondles that which most 

 immediately affects him and ekes out the waning sunshine 

 of midday to its full, with a persistent eye for his ther- 

 mometer, upon which so much now depends. Let him 

 catch a night of comparatively high temperature with a 

 moonless sky, and none of the balmy twilights of mid- 

 summer, with all their gentle zephyrs and inducive dews, 

 will produce such numbers of Noctuid moths upon his 

 sugar. The reason is not far to seek ; for, with the ex- 

 ception of ivy blossom, no counter-attraction lures his 

 bag from the baits he so hopefully provides by daubing 

 treacle, mixed with a little beer, coarse sugar, and some 

 flavouring essences, upon the trunks of trees in woods, or 

 strips of cloth laid on the gorse on heaths. " A most 

 delightful pastime," you will grunt from the depths of an 

 arm-chair before the fire; and truly it holds out quite in- 

 finite possibilities of stickiness and rheumatism. In fact, 

 the average scientist, not overweighted with conventional 

 niceties, will sometimes feel much like a fly on birdlime. 

 But when you light the lamp and set forth an hour after 

 sundown, through the silent lanes, to find what awaits 

 you on the doctored trees, 'tis very lovely. 



The darkness looses one's imagination till every bush a 

 poacher, bludgeon-loaded, holds ; the trees are unnaturally 

 large, and every weasel in the grass becomes a thing to 

 start at. Then, when you reach the woods, miles perhaps 

 from houses, you find them very darksome, your lamp but 

 deepening the gloom. Then presently the fun begins: the 

 moths are feeding thickly on the trunks, their beady eyes 

 gleaming unblinkingly in the noisome light, their wings 

 serenely folded, probosces full outstretched, sucking up the 

 nectar of their fate. You search the sugared patch from 

 top to base, for the half- drugged insects will skip down 



