942 TEOCEEUINUS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



Dead animah and aniinal droppings attract many insects, principally 

 beetles and flies, whose early stages are passied in dead animal matter, 

 and examination of animal carcases and droppings and of the ground 

 beneath them will yield many insects rarely found in any other way. 

 In the case of animal droppings these may be placed in a bucket of water, 

 when the contained insects will float up. The insect-fauna of human 

 excrement is of considerable importance in connection with the trans- 

 mission of many diseases but it cannot be said that this subject has as 

 yet received adequate entomological investigation in India. 



Besides those insects which breed in such situations, carrion and 

 animal drojDpings often attract butterflies and may sometimes be used 

 as baits to bring within reach species which normally fly high up. 



Attraction by other scents may also be turned to advantage in the 

 capture of insects. Newly-turned earth exercises potent attraction for 

 some flies, whilst the males of some species of fruit-flies are attracted 

 by the smell of citronella oil, or kerosine. 



Assembling is a special form of attraction by smell, by which the 

 males of some insects congregate attracted by the smell of a newly- 

 emerged virgin female of the same species. Advantage may be taken 

 of this, in such cases, by exposing a bred or captured newly-emerged 

 female and catching the males as they are attracted to her. The female 

 should be isolated in a gauze cage as, once junction with a male is effected, 

 the attraction ceases. This method of capture may be adopted in the 

 case of wild silk moths and some other groups. 



Sugaring is another method of attraction by smell, used especially 

 for the capture of night-flying moths, although little adopted in India, 

 apjjarently because of the prevalence of ants. The usual procedure 

 is to prepare a mixture of coarse treacle and sugar boiled or mixed 

 together, which is thinned with beer and a little coarse rum added just 

 before apphcation ; bxit almost any sweet mixture containing a little 

 alcohol, such as treacle with a little methylated spirits, will prove 

 attractive. The mixture is painted at dusk on to tree-trunks, palings, 

 flower-heads or any suitable surface and it is best to apply it in long 

 vertical streaks well worked into the bark. After dark the jjrepared 

 patches are examined by means of a lantern, and the insects, attracted 

 to the sugar and rendered stupid by the alcohol, are picked oft' as 

 requu-ed either in boxes or direct into the killing-bottle. The beam 

 of the lamp should be directed from below upwards, not neglecting 

 to examine any drops or trickles of the mixture which may have dropped 

 down, as insects will often drop oft" when the light falls on them and are 

 then liable to knock oft any others below them. A still, warm, dark, 

 sultry night is usually best and the cumulative effect of sugaring is 



