AT BUKGHFIELD. 41 



what Mr. Stephens calls the Semidiurna, the Geometridae, 

 accompany them at all hours. Nor, indeed, is it hepidoptera, 

 alone, — many Coleopterous insects are attracted, particularly 

 Oncomera podagragrice ; and, as might be expected, the male 

 oiLampyris noctiluca. I have also occasionally been plagued 

 by Harpalidce, far from odoriferous, in great numbers ; and 

 now and then I have caught a Colymbetes. I am sometimes 

 teased by swarms of small gnats ; and the house-cricket has 

 once or twice entered. Reduvius personatus has been amongst 

 my captives. A few common Ichneumons and Tipulce are 

 frequent guests. But I must not weary you with details. At 

 the same time, it may be worth while to say a word on my 

 method of securing my prey. Suppose that, with or without 

 using a bag-net, I have imprisoned a moth under an inverted 

 wine-glass, I then light a small piece of German tinder, half 

 the size of a sixpence, or less, and introduce it under the edge, 

 and by means of the smoke the insect is stupified almost 

 immediately. It is then wholly in my power, though it would 

 quickly revive : — I pierce it ; and, by means of a pin dipped 

 in oxalic acid, and thrust into the body beneath the thorax, I 

 prevent its revival, and fix it on the setting-board. The 

 German tinder does not injure the colours, as brimstone 

 would, whilst it puts the moth so completely in my power for 

 a few moments, that the specimens I thus take and kill, are 

 often as perfect and beautiful as if I had bred them. Of 

 course I use it for insects taken in the day, or bred, as well as 

 for those captured by the lamp. 



Let me now proceed to give a List of the Insects, not quite 

 common, which occur at Burghfield, particularly the Lepidop- 



Bombicydae, Notodontidae, and Arctiidae. The males of many genera in these 

 families do indeed fly in pursuit of the female in the afternoon, (Pomeridianum 

 tempus), but I have taken males of the genera Pygaera, Clostera, Centra, Stau- 

 ropus, Notodonta, Leiocampa, Lophopteryx, Ptilodontis, Chaonia, Petasia, 

 Peridea, Saturnia, Lasiocampa, Trichiura, Paecilocampa, Clisiocampa, Odenestis, 

 Psilura, Dasychira, Demas, Leucoma, Porthesia, Arctia, Phragmatobia, Spilo- 

 soma, Nudaria, in the dead of the night. It is obvious, therefore, that they fly 

 in the night also, probably for the same purpose ; and if they have a name to 

 distinguish them from the rest of the Nocturna, it should be indicative merely 

 of the force of attraction in the female. Perhaps the males have the bump of 

 amativeness unusually developed. But if such a distinguishing name were given 

 them to shew their peculiar propensity of what is called " assembling," it must 

 include 'several genera, of what even Stephens calls the Nocturna ; as, for in- 

 stance, Anarta, Brepha, Plusia, Heliothis, Phytometra, Euclidia, &c. 

 NO. I. VOL. II. G 



