192 THE entomologist's record. 



appeared between noon and 7 p.m., only one emerged during the night, 

 and none during the forenoon. I sugared for the perfect insect from 

 the beginning of July till the middle of August, only a few evenings 

 being omitted. My captures were : — July 9th, one specimen ; July 

 15th, two specimens; July i8th, four specimens; July 31st, one 

 specimen; August ist, one specimen; August 7th, two specimens; 

 August 8th, two specimens ; making a total of thirteen specimens. 

 The August specimens were all somewhat worn. These dates agree 

 fairly with those of the bred specimens, and seem to show that the 

 beginning to the middle of July is the right time for the imago. The 

 methods of capture were various, eight being taken on sugar, three on 

 the wing in the garden, flying over various plants, one in our conserva- 

 tory, and one came to liijht in my bedroom. Of the i8go specimens, 

 five were taken at honey-dew, two on the wing, and one at light. I 

 never saw them at flowers, or at any other attractions. The time ot 

 flight naturally varied according to the time of year, some of the July 

 specimens being taken at g.30 p.m., while the August specimens 

 appeared soon after 8.30. Compared with the times of sunset, I find 

 that they usually begin to fly about half an hour after sunset, and 

 continue for perhaps three-quarters of an hour. None were seen after 

 9.30 except the single specimen at light, which appeared at 10.45. 

 Ophiogiamnm comes freely to sugar, and it is probably only owing to 

 the absence of information about its habits that it is not taken more 

 commonly. It settles as far from the sugar as possible, and on several 

 of my patches which were on standard rose trees, and other slender 

 stems, it completely concealed itself on the opposite side, reaching its 

 proboscis round the corner to the nearest drop of sugar. It is also 

 very skittish, and v/ill throw itself off backwards when you are some 

 distance away, and falling down among the herbage, will be perfectly 

 concealed. After missing several in this way one evening I tried the 

 effect of a double dose of rum in the sugar, and took four the next 

 evening without any trouble. When it first settles it keeps its wings 

 half raised, and slowly vibrating, but as soon as the rum takes effect 

 down go its wings, and it then sticks close to the bark. This, how- 

 ever, raises another difficulty ; it is now rather hard to see on the dark 

 bark of our London trees, the peculiar " festoon " marking taking away 

 the triangular look of the insect. On the wing, it 'is easily seen and 

 captured. Its flight is low and steady, and it seems to have no 

 special object in hand, but rather aimlessly flies along. The light 

 undersides of its wings however make it look much smaller than it 

 really is, and it may easily be mistaken for Caradrina inorphetis. The 

 two specimens I have taken at light both behaved in a similar manner, 

 so we may safely conclude that this is its usual habit. It enters the 

 room slowly, flies up to the ceiling, touches it a few times, and then 

 descending obliquely, settles on the Wall. From the reports of various 

 captures, opJiiogramma seems to have been taken in several places 

 near London during the past two seasons. It must be fairly plentiful 

 in the neighbourhood of its foodplant, as out of some dozens of 

 patches of this grass that I have examined this summer, every one 

 showed traces of the ravages of the larvae." — G. A. Lewcock and A. 

 U. B.\TTLEV, Hon. Sees. September ^t/i, 1891. 



