NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 161 



which I secured a very pale var., and X. 7-urea (two dark vars. combusta, 

 which I had never taken previously in that locality), Miana fasciuncula, 

 Apamea gemi?ia, Hadena thalassina, etc. The fact that certain species 

 of Nocture that will in some seasons come freely to sugar are in others 

 absent from it, whilst occurring freely on the wmg and being netted 

 freely, and whilst the same sugar is attracting other species in the same 

 woods in numbers, seems to me to point to the fact either that meteoro- 

 logical influences affect different species in a different manner, which 

 seems improbable, or that the natural attraction for one particular 

 species may fail in occasional seasons, thus impelling the insect to seek 

 other and normally less attractive "sweets." The idea also occurs 

 whether the tendency to be attracted to the artificial and exhilarating 

 "sugar" may be the result of any deficiency of feeding or want of 

 moisture in the earlier stages of development, thus having the "drink 

 tendency " developed in what might be called a heieditary form. This 

 view I throw out for the attention of those who devote their attention 

 to the great " Temperance " question. Amongst the more occasional 

 visitors, during this wet week, to the sugar were Ap.ccta /terbida, Noctua 

 brunnea, Euplexia lucipara, Thyatira batis, etc. The most notable 

 absentees of what I have in former years taken in the same wood were 

 Cymatophora duplaris and Diphthera orion^ although I netted a very 

 fine specimen of the former. 



About the end of June I always commence work on the Downs, 

 where sugaring is more certain work than in woods, and where my own 

 experience is, that a whole season's work is either a thorough failure or 

 a complete success, and does not vary from night to night in the erratic 

 way so often reported in the woods ; this may be due to the comparative 

 absence of honey-dew, as noted by several writers in the Record last 

 season. I sugared almost regularly on the Downs through July, and 

 never had a really bad night's work, the greatest drawback being the 

 very high winds, almost gales, from the S.W. during the first week in 

 July. Agroiis corticea was in unusual numbers, and some very fine dark 

 and banded, and some pale forms were to be selected ; this species was 

 in scores on some of the smallest blossoms, and it was difficult to box 

 any single insect without getting one or more companions with it in the 

 box. A. lunigera beat the record for this locality as regards early 

 emergence, my first being taken June 30th, one day earlier than the 

 previous season's earliest. Owing to the gales, for the next few days 

 nothing could hold its own, a few being, however, circumvented by 

 bunches of cut wild blooms, fixed in sheltered crannies. As soon as 

 the weather improved they were taken fairly freely in company with 

 A. lucernea, of which I must note again that not i per cent, show any 

 marks of being worn in the slightest, even during rough weather in a 

 most exposed locality. This latter species was also early, and both 

 were fully out about the 13th July, but required plenty of cliff work to 

 secure them in any numbers. My best spot was some 30 feet down the 

 face of the cliffs, upon a little patch of spikes of the "wild beet" 

 growing out from some rabbit holes, and off which, on two or three 

 evenings together, I nearly filled my boxes. During part of July, I had 

 the pleasure of the company of Mr. and Mrs. Abbott, of Birmingham, 

 who were also successful in taking good series of both of these 

 Agrotidae. I was unable to meet with A. cinerea here, but picked up 



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