LITHOSIA LUTARELLA AND ITS VARIETY. ETC, 219 



steady pull of oars told of the toiler at his work. Companions in the 

 Great City, companions in the broad-acred northern county, were not 

 those ni<;'hts the i)erfection of enjoyment, as the spot where we sat was 

 the ideal of reposeful peace ? 



Such a night as this was the night for the Pigmy Footman. Then 

 the pale-coated LHhosi'a pygmaeola crept up from the moss-forests, 

 where he slept by day, which stretched miles and miles upon the 

 surface of the ground beneath the ordinary verdure and around the 

 roots of the marram grass. With his round head, and his narrow wings 

 closely folded round his slender body, he crawled up and sat, 

 silent and immovable, on the grass culm. Then he would be followed 

 by another, and another, until every culm around had an occupant. 

 There they .sat quite still, until, presently, a slow unfolding of the 

 wings displayed these organs and rather surprised you as to their extent, 

 considering how small they })reviously looked. With outspread wings, 

 each moth slowly crawls to the top of the culm, and then slowly waves 

 its wings to and fro. It is the lantern that has startled them you 

 think. Yes — No I they do not appear to be attracted by the lantern to- 

 night, but, as they fly off, they are seen to be fluttering here and there 

 in little crowds. They are love-making, " assembling " the learned call 

 it, and for half-an-hour or more they are very busy. That small fat- 

 bodied specimen there is a female. Her wings are much less ample 

 than those of the male. After a time the love-making ceases, the un- 

 paired males console one another on their Avant of success, while the 

 paired moths enjoy their brief nuptials. This, then, is the time to see 

 L.pngmaeola. I have seen the sand-hills on some occasions literally 

 swarming with them. Like the Agrotids, thousands, millions have been 

 there. Where are they now ? 



We thought just now, when the males ])egan to fly, that the light 

 })erhaps disturbed them, that they were attracted by it and would 

 })robably fly to it, but we found that it was not to be so that night. 

 Yet on some nights they are attracted in large numbers by a small 

 lantern put upon the ground in their haunts. No one can tell when 

 they are likely to be attracted by light ; on one night you may put your 

 lantern (piite close to them, peer at them, or pick them off the grass 

 culms, without disturbing one of the crowd around you. On another 

 evening, apparently precisely similar, the approach of the light is 

 sufficient to scare every moth, and they will then flutter around you, 

 and even crawl on your body if you continue to hold the lantern in your 

 hand. 



The Footmen are highly developed moths, probably among the 

 most highly specialised of all our moths. They have well-developed 

 tongues, and, like most insects with well-develo})ed tongues, they love 

 liouey, and come occasionally to the entomologist's sugar. They are 

 not regular sugar-visitors though, but when sugar is " on,'' Lithosla 

 pyijmaeola is generally " on " also. In the daytime, too, it is often to 

 be seen, dreaming in the afternoon on a grass culm, fast asleep 

 a])parentW, but with one eye wide open, for it drops among the grass 

 as soon as disturbed. I believe Harding took the moth for the first 

 time in England, when sunning itself one afternoon after a rain 

 shower. When I presently tell you of its day-flying habits in the warm 

 valleys of Piedmont, I think you will agree with me that this after- 



