September 1899.] 197 



margin). E. spied it from above as be looked over tbe top of a rock, 

 hurried round to where it seemed possible to reach it, but could not 

 see it, pulled out some floating refuse, searched further, and at last 

 found it on the water. We had great rejoicing over it. You will 

 find the best moths in the bottom of the boxes, as the wind was 

 blowing through the tent and I packed them hastily lest they should 

 be blown away. The rest may give you some idea what is to be found 

 in these regions. It is a hilly country, the hills bare except in the 

 hollows above the stream, where the trees grow in little copses. Why 

 it is that we get scarcely any moths to our light and yet they are 

 found floating on the water like this I cannot explain, for I took the 

 lantern down to the stream at night fall, yet obtained nothing whatever. 

 Possibly they float down from a more sheltered spot, but I think not, 

 for they lie in the green scum — ' frog's blanket ' the young folks 

 call it." 



To me also this circumstance seems extraordinary, since here 

 diVe fifty species at least taken off the water, and the specimens must 

 have numbered hundreds, many of them in the half decayed state, 

 which shows that they were dead before being fished out, and indeed, 

 so damaged by the sticky scum, that they could not be set at all, much 

 less preserved as decent specimens. Among them I find two small 

 butterflies much damaged — Pterygospidea Djcdlcelce and Cyclopides 

 metis ; three Lithosidce ~ Siccia caffra, Lysceia higutta, and L. aspera- 

 tella ; several Noctuoe, among them Leucania Loreyi, L. perstriata, Hpsn., 

 L. torrentium, Micra tineoides, Raparna halesusalis, Pmiilla geminilinea^ 

 and Sarmatia inheritalis ; many Qeometridce, including Ascotis selenaria, 

 Thalassodes vermicularia, plenty of Gonodela hrongusaria and Osteodes 

 turhulentata, also Acidalia consentaria and A. remotata, Sterrha sa- 

 craria and S. lineata, War., Phihalapteryx miniata, Coremia poseata, 

 Cidaria mellisaria and C. viridicinctata, Euholia parallelaria, a most 

 beautiful Prohlepsis {Acidalia) nearly allied to the lovely P. cegretta, 

 if not a very finely marked specimen thereof, Isoplenia trisinuata, 

 Warren, Rhodostrophia orthopera, Xenographia pulverata^ two un- 

 named species of Hyperythra, one each of Hemerophila, Boarmia, 

 and Teplirosia, and various others. Also a curious little JJranid 

 — apparently an Epiplema, and probably new — and of Pyralites, 

 Antigastra morysalis, Udea martialis, Aproplepes infuscalis, and our 

 well known and not welcome Nomophila hyhridalis ! , also a few 

 Tortrices and Tineina as yet unrecognised. As my friends were 

 on the journey and spent but two or three days in this spot 

 little further evidence was obtained ; but whether due to great heat, 



s 



