GHOST MOTH EVENINGS 



was an interval of a minute or so, and then, all at once, 

 the corner of the field was full of ghost moths, satin- 

 white male and brown female. I could count nearly a 

 score on a small patch of ground a dozen square yards 

 in extent, and could hear others impatiently whirring 

 deep down in the tangled grasses as they tried to rise 

 on the wing. 



One evening the dance had ended at half-past 

 nine. Every moth had dropped into the grass depths 

 and run a little way up a stem, and there it would be 

 hanging till after nine o'clock next evening unless 

 by any chance the ghost moths dance again in the 

 dusk of the morning a twenty-four hour rest. My 

 impression is though I am not sure that the ghost 

 moths' dance only takes place once in each twenty-four 

 hours, and lasts each time less than an hour. 



As they dance over the meadow grasses, there seems 

 little or no rivalry among the male moths ; at most, 

 they will now and again brush each other lightly ; it is 

 here as if each were far too engrossed in his own move- 

 ments to trouble about neighbours or rivals. But of 

 late I have noticed a curious variant of the usual ghost 

 moth dance over the grass heads. At the corner of 

 the field is a small lime tree, and round this a dozen 

 males were playing one evening. Instead of swinging 

 from side to side, as one might expect, they here rose 

 up and down, and whisked in and out among the leaves"; 



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