NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 279 



imagines from the dark form of larva of this species. These emerged 

 on November 21st, 1895, January 9th and 19th, and February 1st, 

 189(3, the larva3 having pupated towards the end of September, 1895. 

 — C. W. Williams, Penarth. Frbiuanj lOf/i, 1890. 



The Sallower's Dream. 



By CLAUDE MOKLEY, F.E.S. 



The night is pitchy; pitchy in the entomologist's sense of the 

 word — black with the least possible suspicion of brownness over- 

 spreading the heavens where the storm-clouds lower threateningly. 

 By day the country around is fair to the eye of the beholder. Two men, 

 laden with lanterns and nets, their pockets jingling to the time of 

 their footsteps, reveal the presence of those ever-useful accessories 

 of the insect hunter — glass-bottomed pill-boxes. With quick and 

 lithesome tread they take their way a-down the sandy lane. To the 

 right stretch fields interminable, ploughed and rolled, the young corn 

 just making its first acquaintance with the early spring night. On 

 the left a marsh winds away between wooded banks, on this side — oak, 

 on that — -pine. Before them, not a quarter of a mile ahead, is their 

 destination, a great wood, which for many a long year has been their 

 Elysium. Here they have chased fAinvuitix sibi/lla through the summer 

 sunshine, boxed Loiii/ironiia from the fragrant l^uihcllifoaf, and many a 

 sleepy I ^ipteion , basking in the genial warmth on some stalwart trunk, has 

 fallen a victim in the cause of Science. The taller, a man of perhaps some 

 forty summers, hugs beneath his arm a bundle — what, a £;heet ? but 

 why in so lone a spot, and at such an hour ? 'Tis well no city urchin 

 is around ! On, on they tramp, until at last the wood is reached. 

 Ah ! how brightly do the sallows of the sterner sex shine out " amid 

 the encircling gloom," and the air is tilled with so sweet a scent, that 

 even through the " navy cut " it penetrates to their nostrils, and 

 swells their hearts with simple Arcadian thoughts of Xi/lina J'unift'ra. 

 The sheet is spread with care and much pulling of brambles beneath 

 the greatest of these golden bushes, and then away with pipes to 

 pockets, matches are applied to the lanterns — the search commences. 

 Ant idea nii/rofasciaria flits away with obvious disinclination to leave 

 so grand a feast, but hesitation costs him dear, and soon he feels the 

 soft retaining folds of the leno. The three Ih/bi'niidat' seem to recollect 

 previous engagements, but are detained, and ere long llybcrnia 

 li'Hcopluu'oria, li. inan/iuaria and Anisaptcri/.i: (wamlaria find willow 

 walls around them. The lanterns trimmed, the blossoms, each laden 

 with its fragrant pollen, are scanned by eyes long trained to search 

 out llomahitai' and Liinosinac. Tacnidcainpac swarm — incerta, jiulrcru- 

 lenta, stahilis, (/(itldra — what is this ? Ah ! pojmlcti — no, incerta var. ! 

 Further, Iciicdiirapha — yes ! but surely never taken here before ? well, 

 this is a locality long neglected — li'iinxinqilia, yes, and in plenty ; what 

 a fine and varied series ! Look at that beauty ; what can it be — 

 inbi(iinea ? Yes, Pasi/cantjia nibij/inca ! " I have one ! " " And I've a 

 second ! " Worn Xi/lina oniit/iopn.s and Orr/iodia lit/ula, Scoininsoma 

 satcUitia, Cahicanipa f.rolcta, and a nice lot of liupitrina ri(icca(io. 

 The sheet below is getting damp and cold this early spring night. 

 Suddenly it is covered with a multitude of dead things, which, a 

 moment later, animated as with one instinct, crawl and run — Lepi- 



