RANDOM NOTES ON NOCTUID MOTHS, ETC., IN 1907. 291 



sheet made to fly away, and, in some of the gusts, it was all we could do 

 to keep it in position. The night was much too rough for S. ulvae to 

 venture out, and not much appeared except a few Leucania straminea, 

 one very fresh L. obsoleta, and a large, but worn, Smerinthus ocellata, 

 whose furious charge at the sheet gave us quite a start. We found 

 numbers of Leucanias settled on the flowering heads of rushes, but 

 they were all L. pollen* or L. impura. Mr. Waller, however, was 

 successful in taking one specimen of L. favicolor on the wing. 



The next night being equally windy we did not put up the light, 

 but tried treacling the thistles, palings, and trees on another marsh. 

 A few moths were attracted, out very few, and the only one of any 

 value was a specimen of L. favicolor, a second example of which we 

 also took on the wing. The few moths attracted were almost all on 

 thistles, the trees yielding hardly a single specimen. 



The next night it was blowing a regular gale, and was, besides, very 

 cold, and we thought it would hardly be of any use trying treacle 

 again. However, as I only had one more night, we decided to try, 

 and we dosed most of the larger thistles on the same marsh liberally 

 with treacle and jargonelle pear. Of all methods of collecting, boxing 

 moths from thistles, which have been well treacled, on a cold and 

 boisterous night, is one of the most unpleasant. The moths get inside 

 the thistle as far as possible, and while one is manoeuvring to get the 

 pill-box close to the moth a gust of wind rocks the thistle, the moth 

 drops, one makes a frantic plunge with the pill-box to catch him ere 

 he falls, drives one's fingers on to the thorns, and emerges with the 

 hand covered with large drops of treacle, lucky if he has captured 

 the quarry. I take it as a creditable record to ourselves that we bagged 

 all the /-. favicolor and Mamestra abjecta which turned up that night, 

 without missing any, eight specimens of the former and six of the 

 latter. Very few moths of any other species were attracted, only 

 about two or three L. /'aliens, and a few Xylophasia monoglypha, etc. 

 The next and last night promised at first to be good for light, but a 

 heavy mist rolling up spoiled all hope of success, though two or three 

 more /,. favicolor occurred at treacle, and a nice grey specimen of 

 Aplecta occulta was taken at rest upon a, gate-post by Mr. Waller. 



We kept a few of the /,. favicolor for ova, and obtained a fair 

 number, the larvae of which are now about half-grown. One or two 

 went ahead of the others and seemed to be full-fed about the beginning 

 of October, but have not yet gone down. We hope to get some 

 through the winter. 



It was rather tantalizing that the evening on which I had to come 

 away, was an ideal one for light — dark, close and still, as was the 

 night before I went down. 



In the day-time we found one nest of Malacosoma castrensis larvae 

 on the coast, where also Adactylus bennettii occurred amongst the sea- 

 lavender. Everything seemed terribly late, however, and possibly 

 that was the reason why all the close searching for Hyloicus pinastri 

 was a failure. 



A couple of days' Larva-beating on the Norfolk Broads, at tin; 

 beginning of September, was not very successful as regards numbers, 

 though several fairly good species were represented. Geometra papi- 

 lionaria larvae were not so abundant as usual, and were very tiny, 

 Notolophus gonostigma larva' were very scarce, only three turning up. 



