NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 163 



a little difference, but not much, the insects were very wary and kept 

 jumping off, not falling down, and fresh ones kept coming much later 

 than usual. I did not get home till 2.30 one very bright night, but 

 had as many insects as usual. Wind (warm) made no difference, 

 except, perhaps, that the insects sat very tight and were easy to take. 

 I thought they rather took a drink and walked into shelter, and then 

 came back for another. I found several off the sugar, especially higher 

 up the tree. Since the change of last week I have hardly taken any- 

 thing. 5. I don't know what a man does without the cyanide bottle 

 and oxalic acid. I tried, as an experiment, boxing C. marginata, 

 A. nebulosa, and T. batis, and they were wrecks next morning. Of 

 course, my method is tedious. Pin sideways when stupefied in the 

 bottle, and oxalic about every six insects. It involves a small wait 

 after every insect, even with a new bottle and some method in putting 

 away the pen and oxalic carefully. It was a terrible trial on the wet 

 night. But you can pack dead insects very close, and they come home 

 in splendid order with the box very slightly damped. 6. The behaviour 

 of insects. Lots drop and can be picked up. Notably — A. tiebulosa. 

 They often walk away from the sugar, one should look round about 

 especially above and in a wind. Several stay only for a very small 

 drink, notably, T. batis and C. marginata. Others drink for ever, 

 notably, N. /estiva and Triphaina pronuba. Some come early and 

 disappear, e.g., C. or. Some vary, e.g., 2\ batis, the earliest on one 

 night, the latest on another. Some come late, e.g., A. iincta (rarely 

 before 11 o'clock). Some came almost on the ground, on the trickles, 

 e.g., C. 7narginatus and, to some extent, T. batis. Some may possibly 

 be passed over, e.g., B. ligustri and A. herbida. Some are liable to be 

 confused, as R. tenebrosa and G. trilinea var. bilinea (dark), A. tincta 

 and A. nebulosa, A. segetuni and A. corticea, etc. Some seem always 

 fresh and then disappear, e.g., A. herbida. Others get worse and worse as 

 Grammesia trilinea and H. thalassina and T. batis. Some are pug- 

 nacious and drive the others off, especially G. trilinea. I slew two of 

 the latter because, under my very eyes, they hustled off A. tinctot 

 This seems specially to happen just as the light falls upon them. It 

 is very advisable to come straight on to your sugar and not round a 

 corner, they drop off immensely when the light falls on them sideways 

 (or from underneath), it seems to tickle them under the wings. 

 7. Materials. I thought I found treacle and rum better than treacle 

 and jargonelle, and thin treacle better than thick treacle, as making 

 better trickles and keeping them longer. I sugared with very thick 

 treacle one evening, and a very little seemed to go a long way. The 

 bulk of the insects were six inches away from the sugar, and a lot on 

 the ground singing " We won't go home till morning," and some didn't, 

 not till two o'clock. So much for sugar. 



I kept a female Colias edusa, and put her under a bell-glass with a 

 sod of white clover. She was very fresh, wing edges perfect, and colour 

 nearly so. She laid heaps of eggs, little white things like pears, with 

 the stalk stuck into the upper side of the leaf These have behaved- 

 with much eccentricity. Some have changed their second skin, some 

 have changed their first, some are just hatched, and some are still ova. 



Two females of Demas coryli laid freel\', but all the ova seem infertile. 

 One was taken by day and one by night. B. consortaria have laid well. 



