TRIFIDyE. 131 



flying low over the grass and heather, and hardly a yard 

 could be walked without putting one up, and they continued 

 on the wing in the same numbers, flying in the hottest 

 sunshine from 11.30 a.m. till I left the moor about 4 P.M. 

 The next day, a very hot one, the insects were again on 

 the wing the whole distance between Princestown and 

 Siward's Cross and during a long detour back again, a 

 round of nearly ten miles. The females outnumbered the 

 males by twenty to one. I am inclined to think that no 

 males were on the wing except those that our movements 

 disturbed from their hiding-places amongst the heather." 

 Thus it appears that while the ordinary day flight of the 

 males never extends later than 11 a.m., that of the females 

 only commences after that hour, and then only during very 

 hot sunshine, an influence which is well known to render 

 many species of Noctiue exceedingly restless. Both sexes fly 

 at late dusk and probably through the night, visiting ragwort 

 and other flowers, from which they may be secured by means 

 of a lantern. In Scotland, where sugar seems often to be 

 more attractive than in the South, this species may some- 

 times be obtained at that bait, but I know of no such 

 occurrence in England. The male is also strongly attracted 

 by light. 



More especially attached to hill pastures, heaths, and 

 rough mountain land, but occurring in grass lands, ap- 

 parently in all parts of the United Kingdom. Usually it is 

 not very common in the South of England, and in some 

 districts even scarce, though appearing at long intervals in 

 abundance — for instance it has been seen in hundreds if not 

 thousands by IMajor Ficklin in Richmond Park, which is 

 now but just outside London — and is sometimes plentiful on 

 the downs of Sussex. These outbursts of multitudes seem 

 however to be more frequent in the hill districts of Devon, 

 and the Midland Counties, the mountains of Wales — where 

 it is common to the extreme end of Pembrokeshire — and in 

 the moor districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In Scotland 



