CHAR.EAS GRAMINIS IN SOUTHEEN SCOTLAND. 28r 



wherever the bare patches of grub-infested pasture are seen, it 

 will be found that all the grasses have gone quite indiscrimi- 

 nately. I have not been so fortunate as to see the morning 

 tiight described by Mr. Wailes, and so often quoted in connection 

 with this species. On the evening of the last day of September, 

 1893, I happened to be coming down with a companion from the 

 wild mountains around Loch Dungeon, where I had spent a very 

 pleasant day. The evening was mild and very moist — what we 

 call "mochy" hereabouts — and just as we got on to the level 

 ground at the outside of a moss of perhaps six acres in extent, 

 we found antler moths Hying in countless myriads in every 

 direction. The time was 0.40, and there was still enough of the 

 gloaming left to see the moths quite distinctly on every side of 

 us. Hying just below the level of the grass-seed heads. How long 

 this flight had already lasted we had no means of knowing, and 

 as we had many miles of the roughest knowes and bogs still to 

 traverse before we w^ould reach our destination for the night, we 

 tarried only long enough to capture a few specimens for the sake 

 of date and locality. Some years ago, when I was in the habit 

 of going to a railwcxy signal-box in this neighbourhood, where I 

 had secured special permission to capture insects at the lamps, 

 I used to find C. gramiiiis very commonly, but it never came into 

 the lighted cabin until after 11 o'clock. The time used to be 

 distinctly noted from the fact that there appeared, on favourable 

 nights, to be always a rush of moths immediately after the 

 passage of an express train that passed the cabin at 11.5. 

 During the autumn months this species is very frequently found 

 during the daytime on thistle and ragweed flowers. On the 

 moorlands the larvae seem to have a liking for pupating under 

 stones. Small stones, not much bigger than the outspread hand, 

 and lying partly buried in the soil, will, in favourable spots, be 

 found to have one or more pupa; underneath. I have frequently 

 gathered the pupte in such places. 



In confinement the larvae of C. gramiids have (with me, at 

 any rate) thriven very badly, and scarcely five per cent, have 

 got to the pupal stage. Several of my friends have the same 

 complaint to make. The caterpillars reach the last moult and 

 die off, their bodies being then in an almost tiuid condition. I 

 have tried them in several ways, even going to the trouble of 

 bringing some sods of the moor grasses, but with no better 

 success. 



There is a tolerably frequent remark that these larvae " follow 

 the voles." It is of course well known that after the vole plague 

 suddenly ceased the pasture sprung up again in the most luxu- 

 riant manner. The tussocks of coarse perennial grasses, the 

 rushes and sedges, had all disappeared, and the new grass was 

 young and green, and of the freshest description. Whether 

 the "hill-grubs" were thus furnished with suitable pabulum on 



