102 SUMMER 



then it can be found visiting the garden flowers after night- 

 fall, and displaying an unexpected activity. Not many 

 geometers visit sugar spread on trees and walls, but if a spot 

 of the sweet mixture is brushed on outstanding blossoms in 

 the garden borders they will feed on it more freely, and can 

 be caught or examined when the lantern is turned on the 

 baited flowers. One advantage of spreading the sugar on 

 flowers instead of on trees, palings, or walls is that it is safer 

 from the inroads of slugs, which will lick up in an hour after 

 dark as much of the mixture as would satisfy a hundred 

 moths. On the other hand, the virtue of the mixture lies 

 largely in its attractive smell, and it is difficult to spread 

 enough of it on a flower to make it smell strongly enough to 

 attract moths from a distance. This method chiefly provides 

 a more potent attraction for moths which naturally visit 

 flowers. 



Watching for moths as they sit motionless by day on 

 trunks, walls, and palings is one of the less productive but most 

 interesting branches of moth-hunting. It is easy to acquire 

 an almost instinctive habit of looking at all suitable spots as 

 we pass them, and once this is done regularly, it is remark- 

 able how often we shall find them occupied by a moth. 

 Several of the hawk moths occur fairly frequently in this 

 way, as well as many species of geometers and noctuae. 

 The habit of resting motionless on the mottled background 

 of wooden palings or lichened tree-trunks gives a wide 

 opportunity for the development of protective imitation, and 

 if moths always sought their appropriate background, they 

 would be hard to detect without a careful search. Often, 

 however, they pitch on spots which provide a contrast rather 

 than a harmony, and are conspicuous to any observant eye. 

 The willow beauty is a large and common midsummer 

 geometer which rests on flat surfaces, with all four wings 



