31 



In my humble opinion great rewards still await the persevering 

 collector, particularly if resident, in South Devon. In view of the 

 o-ood things that have been taken, who can sav what is in store for 

 others ? There were, first, Mr. Jager's Ophiusa stolida * in 1903, which 

 I had the pleasure of seeing the morning after capture ; then my friend's 

 tine Nonagria sparganii in 1899 ; also his two Nola albulalis. Cer- 

 tainly four Leucania extranea (three of which were taken on ground 

 1 have worked scores of times) and Hypena ohsitalis, whose fortunate 

 captor I know well. Heliotliis scufosa, Sterrha saeraria, Plusia iii, 

 Bianthoecia barrettii, Deiopeia pulchella (which was taken by a friend 

 in my neighbourhood), and many others. 



For reasons which are difficult to discover, South Devon seems to 

 have been much neglected during recent years. In pre-war days I have 

 often been for walks on summer evenings over ground that, from an 

 entomological point of view, is almost historic, without meeting a single 

 collector. Twenty years or more ago I should probably have encountered 

 parties of our leading entomologists. Perhaps, however, they imagined, 

 as is so often the case, that others would be there before them, with the 

 result that miles of the finest collecting ground in the south-west of 

 England have been entirely neglected year after year, save, perhaps, for 

 the occasional visits of residents in the neighbourhood. The following 

 notes on a few special species may, I hope, prove of interest. 



Leucania putrescens.— Our experience with this essentially Devon- 

 shire moth is worth noting. Considering that it was, we knew, taken 

 freely at a well-known locality not many miles away from us, we thought 

 it strange that not a single specimen appeared on our own ground. On 

 the advice of an old and experienced collector, who had taken putrescens 

 plentifully in the earlier days of its discovery, we sugared the blooms of 

 the wild carrot as near the coast as we could go, but Avithout, at first, 

 any success whatever. A few years later, however, abotit 1898 probably, 

 putrescens began to put in an appearance. Strangely enough, we first 

 took it at bramble blossoms. Subsequently it came to sugar ; but we 

 took more when the latter was spread on posts and fencing than when 

 we sugared the flowers ; and this was a great blessing, as examining long 

 stretches of low-growing flowers is a very tedious occupation. We soon 

 discovered, however, that there was something far more attractive to 

 putrescens than sugar, viz. the flowers of the wood sage {Teucrium 

 scorodonia). In the year 1902 I made a note in my Diary as follows :— 

 " L. putrescens, decidedly on the increase, and now occurring in some 



* See Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. xxii, 2nd series, p. 203, and plate. 



