164 



distributed Swift Moths whose somewhat similarly 

 veined wings like those of the Urauldae, Cossidae 

 and some of the Boinbj'ciiia , do not hook Imt 

 act independantly like tlie wings of mayflies, 

 dragon-flies , bugs and beetles ; which confers an 

 air of antiquity. When the cows are driven 

 home to the milk pail over a Scotch moor , the 

 male of Hepialus Hectus may be often seen in 

 the northern twilight executing a Highland fling 

 over the fern clump beside the stone wall or 

 volcanic dyke ; in England it is more sociable. 

 Chancing on the eighth of July 1886 to pass 

 along a foot-way in the Channtry Woods near 

 Guildford as the sun sank low , 1 saw in the 

 glints a number of the males of the Golden Swift 

 on the swing in little elfish companies among the 

 brambles , and their females who were reposing 

 on the grass stems or hanging by their fore legs 

 on the under side of the nut leaves, flew up from 

 time to time to find a partner among the dancers ; 

 when there came a pause in the frolic a couple 

 would often sustain the animation, and when the 

 dizzy whirl recommenced, the males disclosed from 

 the pouches on their stunijn' Iiind legs devoid of 

 tibiae two puff liall hair fans that spread into 

 a star as they went anew like incense pots on 

 the swing. According to Mr. Barrett who captured 

 a number of newly emerged choral dancers it 

 was a scent of tansy that cloyed the air and 

 according to Mr. W. Farren it was a delicious 

 aroma of pine apple. In the dark night , wlien 

 the startling white male of Hepialus huuiiili is 

 swaying pendulum-like over the fragrant hay or 

 leaping spectre-like in the churchyard , it too 

 spreads the tan.sy scented fans that depend like 

 mops on its hind legs into the form of a c(jniposite 

 flower with rays, and then as it moves and glitters 

 like a silver bait its delighted female bounds to 

 meet it on the wing. But it is the scent that 

 is the delight for the attraction lasts when the 

 costume is changed ; on the chalk downs near 

 Guildford the Golden Swift is sometimes nearh' 

 white , Polyomuiatus corydon on the limestone 

 plateau at Valiadolid in Spain for a similar 

 reason I once mi.stook for a white butterfly ; in 

 Shetland where the northern twilight does not 

 favour a dance in satin sheen Mr. Meek found 

 the male ghost moth had often the dappled orange 

 wings of the female. Mr. E. K. Robinson has 

 seen the males of Hepialus sylvanus which differ 

 from their females in possessing comlied antennae 

 organize a dance, the males of Hepialus velleda 

 fly swiftly and dance over the tops of the ferns 

 at dusk, when on the Moor of Rannoch I have 

 met with the brown variety earnus. Mr. Edwards 

 in Insect Life mentions his having heard Heeas- 

 tesia fene.slrata, an orange and black Zygaenidae 

 with a transparent patch on its wings emitting 

 a whizzing sound as it swayed in company through 

 the air on the Plenty Ranges near Melbourne. 



9. Our ancestors who fancied all creatcil 

 beings entered an ark , such as is now-a-da.A's 

 constructed at the asphalt springs on the Eu- 

 phrates, to be stranded upon the snowy top of 

 Arai'at were necessarily benighted , they made 

 butterflies into picture patterns and any one who 

 recognised law and order was an atheist ; it was 

 then the fashion to believe in a mechanical 

 creations of species which when they varied became 

 monstrosities doomed to destruction. Now the 

 sequence of lepidoptera in the cabinet is often 

 so complete and the gradation so insensible that 

 the extreme forms placed side by side would lie 

 called distinct species , it is an external change 

 certainly, but the internal anatomy is very similar 

 in the moths and butterflies. They all claim 

 the same descent from the neuroptera of the coal 

 shales. Psyche uigricaus that crawls over the 

 furze of the New Forest ensconced in a case of 

 heath stems and the allied species in Europe, 

 Asia and North America, where they are known 

 as Bag Worms, according to Ochsenheimer connect 

 the case-making Caddis Flies with the Tineina 

 and Bombycina. The wingless female of these 

 hairy and scaleless moths sits on her cocoon until 

 she is visited by the males as do the apterous 

 females of the Vapourers, whose caterpillars arc 

 tufted like a blacking brush and a male ziz-zaging 

 in the air , is a familiar sight in London and 

 the towns of the American States: Orgyia antiqua 

 is found it is said in the old and new woidd 

 and if so is well named as the probable ancestral 

 form. A lady once noticed the little Hook Tips 

 looked very Indian and possibly these moths had 

 larger falcate winged relatives more suggestive 

 of the east in the days when Ptérodactyles flew 

 about the cycad scrub of Portland. The t;v'pical 

 male of our large Bombycina has a combed 

 antennae and goes in quest of its female, in the 

 New Forest Lasiocampa rubi goes hurry-skurry 

 over the swampy heath when the lungwort flowers 

 in May and in July Lasiocampa quercus tares 

 distra<;tedly up and down over the ferns in the 

 midday sunshine : those who are so fortunate as 

 to have bred a female by taking her to the 

 hunting ground of the other .sex may speedily 

 obtain as many specimens as they require. 1 

 recall when I was located among the plane tree 

 avenues of Turin in the summer of 1878 I bred 

 some of the white females of Hypogymua dispar 

 and in the course of the afternoon when the sun 

 shone hot 1 vras accustomed to see dusky male 

 Gipsies with pectinated antennae hastening in 

 at the window .showing they were guided by 

 scent and not fascinated hy primrose tinted muslin. 

 I have tv.'o specimens of this moth said to he 

 English vi'hich are smaller than those I have 

 seen in France and Italy. Mr. E. K. Robinson 

 has noticed that the female of Arctia villica 

 that passes its life in the hayfield attracts its 



