﻿A HOLIDAY IN NOBFOLK. 291 



This success with an insect that on previous occasions had 

 only been picked up in twos and threes determined us to stop for 

 another night in the same place. The evening of the 30th was 

 more promising, with more cloud and a fair breeze blowing, and 

 we got out our sheets and lamps and had our meal early. While 

 this was preparing, one of our number, strolling out with a net, 

 shouted that N. neiirica was already there. We had our meal, 

 and netted a few Coenohia rufa before the more serious work 

 commenced. We had high expectations, but none of us 

 dreamed of the extent of our realization ; neurica may be said 

 to have been swarming. Nearly every heap of rushes produced 

 one or two at least ; most of them, especially in the wetter 

 places, produced them in dozens and scores. Several were 

 paired. The best heaps took us into very wet ground, and two 

 of us went into holes half-way up our thighs and took an in- 

 voluntary seat in cold water, but such incidents were of small 

 account. We stopped at last almost ashamed of taking so many 

 and got our lamps alight at the sheets, but here there was little 

 result. The moon was shining now, and a couple of Nonagria 

 brevilinea, a bright red Spilosoma fuliginosa, with a few more 

 C. phragmitidis, C. phragmitellus, and S. pallida were all that 

 came to our nets. 



The presence of this insect in such large numbers in the cut 

 reeds was very remarkable. Some of them had certainly pupated 

 there, for we found one or two with the wings hardly dry. They 

 could hardly, however, have crawled away from the reed-beds 

 and found out the heaps for the express purpose of pupating in, 

 in such numbers. The probability is that those which emerged 

 there were already pupte at the time when the reeds were cut. 

 The presence of newly-emerged females, though in small numbers, 

 would naturally attract males ; but if this were the only expla- 

 nation one would have expected to find a large preponderance 

 of males, whereas the two sexes were in approximately equal 

 numbers. Probably the coincidence of two or three causes 

 brought about the result which proved so interesting to us — a 

 specially good year for N. neurica (later experience bore this out), 

 delay in the carrying of the cut reeds, some of which contained 

 puppe, and the rough weather, which sent numbers of insects to 

 them for shelter. A few other moths were found in the same 

 place. The females varied greatly in size ; the largest I have 

 measures 29 mm. from tip to tip across the expanded wings, and 

 the greatest breadth of the fore wings is 51^ mm. ; the smallest 

 is barely 20 mm. across, and the breadth is S^ mm. The males 

 are more uniform, but invariably small. 



W^e resolved that next morning we would be off to new 

 ground, but next day brought a gale of wind and torrents of 

 rain which made sailing out of the question, and with our hands 

 full of insects to set we were content to stay, hoping to get off 



