NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



291 



Electric Light versus Gas Light (Incandescent). — Considering 

 what numbers of insects are attracted by the electric light in our 

 streets, I have often wondered why the incandescent gas lights appear 

 to be less attractive than the lamps with ordinary burners, although 

 the former light is so much more brilliant. Since the installation of 

 the electric light at Shepherd's Bush, I have noticed moths gyrating 

 around the lamps in scores, indeed, sometimes it has been almost 

 bewildering to look up at the whirl of fascinated insects. I still find 

 that the old gas-lamps attract a few specimens, but I rarely notice any 

 tenants on the lamps with the mantle light. I was glad to note that 

 Eugonia fuscantaria still occurs in the neighbourhood, as I picked up 

 a fine female which had been smashed by a passing cyclist. I noticed 

 that many moths rest on the roadway for a while, and often renew 

 their giddy flight round the arc-light, the attractive power of which 

 appears to them irresistible. — Alfred T. Mitchell ; 5, Clayton 

 Terrace, Gunnersbury, W., October 21st, 1898. 



The Pupation of Smerinthus tille. — It has been a matter of 

 speculation as to where the larvae of certain insects, such as Smerinthus 

 tilicE, pupate when the base of the tree, generally an elm, the foliage 

 of which forms its principal food, is wanting in those warm cosy 

 angles clothed with grass. The ground surrounding these trees is 

 often made so hard by cattle as to defy any larvae penetrating it. 

 Some time since, whilst examining one of these trees, my attention 

 was attracted by a large quantity of loose bark which hung from the 

 trunk like huge scales. On climbing up the tree some ten or twelve 

 feet and loosening the bark, I was surprised to find two or three pupae 

 of S. tilicB beneath it ; the larvae had fastened themselves to the bark, 

 which acted as a perfect shelter from wind and storm. During the 

 past two months I have dug under some hundreds of elms, which grow 

 to great perfection in the valley of the Tone, and it is singular that I 

 have never met with more than one pupa of this insect beneath any 

 one tree ; perhaps this is accounted for by the foregoing remarks. In 

 the case of Smerinthus populi, I have found as many as three beneath 

 one poplar, the bark of which would not allow of the pupation of 

 such large larvae beneath it. — T. Buckland ; East Street, Taunton, 

 November 8th, 1898. 



Grasshoppers at Sugar. — Mr. Lucas's account of Thamnotrizon 

 cinereus, Linn., being taken at sugar is of some interest (ante, p. 267). 

 It is a well-known fact that these Decticidae are fierce carnivorous 

 insects, and equally well known that they are, partly at least, nocturnal 

 in habits. It would be very interesting to observe whether T. cinereus 

 comes to sugar for the sake of the insects which the sugar attracts, or 

 to partake of the delicacy itself. Meconema varium, Fab., is not 

 carnivorous, but I doubt whether T. cinereus would attack so large an 

 insect. It usually prefers small flies, Musca, &c. As to its nocturnal 

 propensities, I have often taken it in hedges, chirping away merrily, 

 between ten and twelve at night in August and September, in the south 

 of England.— Malcolm Burr; New College, Oxford, October 29th, 1898. 



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