INSTRUCTIONS IN LEPIDOPTERA. 



17 



beats a hedge on the side on which the wind is blowing, the 

 moths he dislodges will all effect their retreat on the other, 

 and he will not be benefited, except by the exercise of beating ; 

 many insects will be found in grass fields, and may be dis- 

 lodged by the feet of the collector, or may be obtained by 

 sweeping the herbage. In the Midland counties, and North 

 of England and Scotland, many Noctuce will be found resting 

 on the stone walls, and that rare species, Cry modes Templi, 

 is not unfrequently found in heaps of loose stones, by care- 

 fully turning them over one by one. Besides the above 

 modes of catching butterflies and moths, some moths may 

 be enticed by stratagem, that is, they may be obtained by 

 sugar and by light. 



The moths which are obtained by sugar are principally 

 Noctuce. The Bomhyces never come to sugar, and the 

 Geometridce and Microlepido})tera only occasionally, but 

 the Noctuce may be obtained in that way in great numbers; 

 hence our collections are now proportionally much richer in 

 this family than in the others. To obtain moths by sugar, the 

 process is this, a mixture is made of coarse brown sugar and 

 beer, with the addition of a little rum, and this is daubed 

 by means of a painter's brush on the sheltered side of the 

 trunks of trees, or, if there are no trees, on posts, stones, &c. 

 The mixture should be laid on about sunset, or a little before 

 or after, and as soon as it gets dusk the places sugared should 

 be revisited, the collector being provided with a lantern, and 

 for several hours the moths will continue to arrive and may 

 be found sitting at the sugar busily engaged on the dainty 

 meal set before them ; at break of day they all however dis- 

 perse, so that it is of no use to put the sugar on the trees over 

 night and go and look for the moths there the following 

 morning. 



The moths which are obtained by light are of all the 

 families. Bomhyces, Geometridce, Pyrtdides and Crambina, 



