CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



133 



pain ; but as a matter of fact they are killed before being pinned, as 

 otherwise they would be ruined as specimens. While insects do have 

 sensory nerves, they are probably by no means as well developed as 

 the motor nerves, which are essential in such active creatures. In the 

 higher orders of animals and those which bring forth few young, pain 

 is necessary to protect life, and the loss of this protection in insects is 

 compensated for by fecundity. There are also direct experiments to 

 prove that insects do not suffer pain. It is said that a dragon-fly will 

 eat from the end of its abdomen as far as it may be fed to it. Also if 

 the same insect be deprived of its abdomen and supplied with one of 

 wax of the same size and weight, the insect will go about its business 

 and pursue mosquitoes for food as though its anatomy had not been 

 abbreviated. The nocturnal moths are also very tolerant of pins thrust 

 through them in daytime, but when night conies they endeavour to 

 depart, pin, tree and all, if pinned to the latter. The writer has been 

 accused of cruelty by lady friends in starving to death the large 

 bombycid moths, which, by the way, have no mouth parts, and only 

 feed in the larval condition." — (' Entomological News '). 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Easter (1899) in the New Forest. — Arriving at Lyndhurst Road 

 Station about 7.50 p.m. on Thursday, March 30th, my father and I were 

 met by Mr. J. Wiltshire, of Bank, who was to drive us there. Bank is a 

 small place about a mile from Lyndhurst. We arrived at our destination 

 about 9.20, and after supper had a look at the sallows. Teeniocampa 

 stabilis was very abundant, but a nice series of these and a single T.gothica 

 completed our captures for that evening. A specimen of Selenia illunaria 

 and several Cerastis vaccinii were also seen. 



March 31st, we took two beautiful specimens of Xylocampa lithorhiza 

 at rest on a birch-trunk a few inches from the ground, one Xylina rhizo- 

 litha in very fresh condition on a post, and a fine male of Brephos par- 

 thenias which my father took flying along the road. At sallows in the 

 evening Panolis piniperda (two), Xylocampa lithorhiza (one), Tcenio- 

 campa stabilis and T. pulverulenta (crudu), Phlogophora meticulosa (one, 

 exceptionally large) were taken, aud Selenia illunaria was seen. Tcenio- 

 campa stabilis far outnumbered anything else every night, and perhaps the 

 next in numbers was Cerastis vaccinii. 



April 1st was a gloriously fine day, the sun coming out very strongly, 

 and this was the only occasion on which we saw any butterflies. Gonepteryx 

 rhamni (males) were absolutely swarming, a few Pieris rupee were seen, and 

 one Vanessa urticce. After a very slow day's work, and just as we had 

 folded our nets up and were approaching Lyndhurst, a specimen of Vanessa 

 polychloros came up within easy striking distance. We came across a 

 colony of Brephos parthenias among birches, but found them exceedingly 

 difficult to catch. They flew quite out of reach, and we only succeeded iu 

 netting one, a female. A specimen of Lobophora lobulata was taken from 

 a birch-trunk. We tried treacle as well as sallows iu the evening, and saw 

 the following insects at it: — Tceniocampa munda and T. stubilis, several 

 C. vaccinii and Scopelosoma satellitia, aud one Eupithecia abbreviata (?). 



ENTOM. — MAY, 1899. N 



