VARIOUS MODES OF COLLECTING 53 



let him revisit his collecting room an hour or two 

 before daybreak to secure any specimens which have 

 come in during the night. 



On some nights moths come veritably in troops to 

 the light Bombyces, Noctuse, Geometrse, Pyrales, Tor- 

 trices, Tmese, and Pterophori, it is a mad race which 

 shall come in ; but these gala nights are very scarce 

 sometimes there will not be above three such nights in 

 a year ; and here is shown the necessity of the collector, 

 who wishes to attract insects by light, attending syste- 

 matically, for the good nights cannot be distinguished 

 by our senses from the bad ones, and if he only lights 

 up now and then, instead of regularly, he will be almost 

 sure to miss the good nights. I once knew a con- 

 tinuous fortnight of good nights. 



When the small Psychodse come in great numbers, 

 so as to blacken the windows and ceiling of the collect- 

 ing room, it is almost an infallible sign that the moths 

 are coming in numbers. 



Those who have not opportunities of collecting by 

 light from their own windows must console themselves, 

 if they live in suburban localities, by visiting the gas 

 lamps. A graphic account of the pleasures of collecting- 

 moths at gas-lamps, from the peri of Mr. Barrett, will 

 be found in the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine' 

 (vol. iii., p. 42). 



It is by no means improbable that beneficial results 

 might ensue from taking a good light apparatus into a 

 wood, in which case it might be desirable to place the 

 light upon some white surface, such as a sheet, so as to 

 increase the dazzling surface which is to operate on the 

 optic nerves of the woodland moths. The American 

 moth-trap, described in the 'Entomologist's Monthly 



