1911.] 157 



Electric Light as an attraction for Beetles and other insects. — The attrac- 

 tiveness of artificial li^ht has long been knowTi to Lopidopterists, who have 

 found it an excellent means of obtaining species otherwise less easy of capture. 

 So far, however, as insects belonging to other Orders are concerned, little 

 advantage seems to have been taken of their weakness in this respect, although 

 tlie knowledge of it is widespread. Here and there in Entomological literature 

 may be found scattered i-eferences to the habit of certain species to enter houses 

 or business premises when lit up; e.g., Canon Fowler (Col. Brit. Is., Vol. I, p. 49) 

 names Harpalus calceattis, Stiu-m, in this connection. As yet no attempt seems 

 to have been made to study the subject with any degree of thoroughness, 

 possibly through fear that the result woiild not justify the labour involved. 

 This is the case with " sugaring," which does not pay in any Order except the 

 Lepidoptera, the number of species of all Orders outside it known to come to svigar 

 not being sufficient, or of such rarity, as to make it worth while to use this means 

 to obtain them. In the follo-.ving notes, Avhich have been put together in a 

 somewhat hasty manner, I hope to show that artificial light is not unworthy 

 the attention of Coleopterists, and that my experiences with Electric light may 

 prove xisoful in suggesting a form of collecting which is inexpensive, requires 

 no special apparatus, may be employed within a shoi't distance of home, and has 

 the additional merit of being new and gloriously iincertain in its results. Soon 

 after the electric light was introduced into this borough (Barnsley, S. W. Yorks) 

 a specimen of Necrodes littoralis, L., a species I had not then met with, which 

 had been taken at an electric lamp, was brought to me. From that time I have 

 spent a considerable portion of the few evenings when I had the leisure to do so, 

 in examining the insects which are attracted to the arc lamps, my observations 

 have been mainly confined to a stretch of lamps on a straight line of road leading 

 almost due north from the centre of the town to within one qiiarter of a mile of 

 the borough boundary. The most productive spot is an obelisk which supports 

 lamps on the northern and southern sides. Cariously enoiigh the northernmost 

 lamp which stands on high ground and commands a wide expanse of open 

 coiintry, a situation which one would expect would give it special advantages, 

 has i^roved the least productive. No special time has been chosen for making a 

 round of the lamps, opportunity has determined whether they were visited at all 

 or not, and also if visited, the number of times. The most I have gone has been 

 fovxr times each way in one night ; the least once only on my way home. The 

 following is a list of the principal species met with since I commenced making 

 observations, and must not be supposed to relate to 1910, which was a most 

 unprofitable year for this and other kinds of collecting, although some of the 

 species met with were not without interest. They are easily divisible into 

 two groups: — 



(I). Those species to whom the light is the primary attraction, and 

 (II). Those to whom this attraction is secondary, the primary attraction 

 being some of the species in the first groups. 



Taking this last group first, as the mimbers are fewer and of lesser relative 

 importance, it is intei'esting to note how quickly both bats and cats have 

 discovered the value of the lights as points of attraction. Even in busy streets 



