NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 109 



often than among the Noctuse and Geometrse is because the 

 larger ones are more often looked after, and the pupse kept over 

 in the hope that some of them may emerge in time. This is so 

 in my case, and specimens of Saturnia carpini and Dicranura 

 vinula are now emerging from larvae fed in 1882. They are, 

 however, malformed. There seems to me no sufficient explanation 

 for such a retardation of Nature's natural course, unless it be 

 in the fact that, being in the house, therefore in a dry site, they 

 have lacked that moisture which they would have had in their 

 natural habitats. This idea is further strengthened by the fact 

 that, had the D. vinula been allowed to pupate on the trunk of a 

 living tree, instead of on pieces of dry bark, they would have had 

 a supply of moisture which they lacked in the loose pieces of bark. 

 Some Acronycta megacephala which pupated in the same pieces of 

 bark failed to emerge, which tends to show that moisture is 

 necessary to their well-being. Some reason of course there must 

 be, and although it is well known that S. carpini often stands 

 over for two or even four years, yet I have not noticed the same 

 thing occur with D. vinula. It would be useful to know why such 

 things occur; and if entomologists would publish their experiences 

 of a like nature some definite conclusion might be arrived at, and 

 lead to a knowledge of the laws which govern such retardation. 

 — W. A. Wright ; Secretary's Department, Inland Revenue, 

 Somerset House, March 25, 1884. 



Colour preferences in Nocturnal Lepidoptera. — Mr. L. 

 P. Gratacap, of New York, writing in the 'American Naturalist,' 

 says: — "For two seasons past (1881 and 1882) I have made 

 fruitless attempts to reach some definite conclusions as to the 

 relative importance of a few primary colours as attracting signals 

 to night-flying insects. I do not know whether the plan adopted 

 is original or not, and as it may yield some useful or interesting 

 results in the hands of others I briefly describe it : — I made four 

 or five sleeves, or cylinders open at both ends, of variously- 

 coloured tissue papers, and drew them over common kerosene 

 lamps with glass chimneys, — the familiar illuminating agent of 

 all country homes, — thus improvising a very serviceable and 

 inexpensive Chinese lantern. The advantage of this arrange- 

 ment consists in the ease with which the coloured sleeves can be 

 changed, any combination of colours being secured without 

 removing the lights, and so a uniformity of light-power main- 



