1892.] 99 



monota puncticostana ; we recognise it as darker and smaller on the 

 wing and more level in its flight. What are those larger insects 

 dashing over at intervals ? Catch one, and you will see ; they are not 

 so big as they appear, and are Cnepliasia musciilana, often rather a 

 nuisance from their abundance. Those little fellows like flies are 

 Stigmonota redimitana, while, if hawthorns be near, an occasional 

 Pyrodes Wiediana will join in the dance ; the latter does not, however, 

 wander far from its food-plant. 



Occasionally, for it is a local insect, Semasia ohscurana (^gallicoland) 

 will be met with in similar places among oaks, and on one occasion I 

 took over 70 in this way in a little over an hour without moving from 

 one spot. As the afternoon wanes the species already named fly less 

 freely, but they are joined by Ancliylopera Mitterhaclieriana and Gra- 

 'pliolitha campoliliana abundantly, the latter among sallows especially, 

 while Phloeodes tetraquetana in swarms, and P. immundana, sometimes 

 commonly, appear upon the scene. Big Tortrix ministrana fly heavily 

 over at intervals, and other species turn up, such as Lohesia Servillana, 

 Penthina picana, Argyrotoza Comvayana, &c., &c., and this is continued 

 until nearly dusk, when it ceases to be profitable. 



Although it is evident that tree-feeding Tortrices are principally 

 those captured in this way, we meet with others among them which 

 we should hardly have expected to find flying so high. I have captured 

 such insects as Simaefhis Fabriciana, scintillulana, Halonota nigri- 

 costana, and Lohesia religuana, but only the last in any numbers. 



A list of those species which may be taken flying over the tops 

 of trees and bushes and round the tips of the higher branches is here 

 appended, and as most of them fly out of reach of an ordinary net, 

 the value of the pole net cannot be over estimated. 



I suppose every one knows that a very large percentage of our 

 Tortrices are true lovers of sunshine, flying rarely when the luminary 

 is obscured ; in fact, there are very few families which are purely 

 crepuscular or nocturnal in their flight, and many fly both by day and 

 night. Genera like Sericoris, Mixodia, Eriopsela, Phoxopteryx, Halo- 

 nota, Grapholitha, Semasia, Coccyx, Stigmonota, Dichrorampha, Chrosis, 

 and Aphelia, are almost exclusively day flyers, and many others fly 

 early in the evening between sundown and dusk, so that there is plenty 

 of work from April to September. 



Very little is really known of our southern Tortrices, and J. am 

 certain that several new species would turn up, and doubtless some of 

 them in considerable numbers, if the country were systematically 

 worked in the manner indicated. I have been often surprised at 



