54 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



adverse to my own. Everyone- recognizes Mr. Donbleday's 

 right IjO speak ex cathedra on any question connected with 

 British Lepidoptera, few having had his lengthened expe- 

 perience, or exercised the same patient and unwearied obser- 

 vation. I shoidd be slow therefore to form an opinion oppo- 

 site to his, and still slower to express it, unless I had, as I 

 thought, very strong reason for doing so. With this proviso, 

 1 must say I cannot at all agree with his assertion (Kntom. 

 iii. 3G) that the females of most of the Noctnae are " nearly 

 or quite as active as the males." This is a question of mere 

 personal observation. During the whole period that I have 

 collected I have been struck with the comparative scarcity, 

 in a state of nature, of the females of all Orders of Lepi- 

 doptera, except the butterflies. Taking the usual methods, 

 natural or artificial, of attracting moths, I have always under- 

 stood it to be an acknowledged truth that the proportion of 

 females thus captured was very small indeed, cou)pared with 

 that of the males. Assuming this to be correct, we cannot 

 reconcile it with the alleged tact that the females are as 

 active as the males. Take, ibr example, moths attracted by 

 " light." For eight years 1 was in the habit, during the sea- 

 son, of sitting up, night after night, from 11 a.m. to 2 P.M., 

 for this purpose, and 1 have no hesitation whatever in saying 

 that ninety per cent, of the insects thus captured were males. 

 I think the same to be true, though perhaps in a less propor- 

 tion, of moths taken at sugar, ivy, sallows, &c. In the last 

 number of the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' Mr. Bar- 

 rett gives an account of a number of TaniocampiE captured 

 by him at sallows in the spring of '65. Should these lines 

 meet his eye, I shall feel much obliged if he would write a 

 line to say what was the proportion of males and lemales, of 

 course excepting those of the latter which he specially looked 

 for. Surely it will be admitted that females are rarely taken 

 on the wing, especially among the Bombyces. Are not the 

 females of the Noctuae and Geometrae, as a rule, taken either 

 by beating or by searching for then) in their lurking-places .'' 

 1 do not now speak of breeding, by which method, I suspect, 

 the great majority of females find their way into our col- 

 lections. For these reasons 1 must still adhere to my opinion 

 that the females of all moths are njuch less active than the 

 males. 1 quite agree, however, witk Mr. Doubleday in saying 



