Mr. P. J. Selby on the Fauna of TwizeU, 365 



grassy fields, and in some autumns the caterpillars are seen in 

 hundreds feeding upon the heath, willow, &c. It is, however, 

 an insect we have rarely succeeded in rearing from the larva, 

 as in despite of every attention they generally die before as- 

 suming the pupa state. The extensive list of the NoctuidcBy 

 w^hich amounts to 132 species, is to be attributed to the suc- 

 cess which has attended our mode of enticing and securing 

 them during their early nocturnal flight ; this is effected by 

 the free use of honey, smeared upon some receptacle which is 

 placed in situations supposed to be favourable to the flight of 

 the moths. An old bee-hive, or as it is called in the north 

 ^ a skep', is preferred to any other article, as it offers a larger 

 surface, and from its circular form allows the moths when set- 

 tled upon it to be easily captured by the flappers. By this 

 device we have sometimes taken several dozen specimens in 

 an evening, many of them considered of great rarity, and which 

 but for this irresistible trap would probably have remained 

 undiscovered ; for although we had paid considerable attention 

 to the nocturnal Lepidoptera before this plan was adopted, not 

 a fourth part of the species had been obtained which a single 

 season afterwards brought to light. But besides the certainty 

 of attracting the various species of the Noctuid(B and affording 

 in a good season an abundant supply of fine specimens for the 

 cabinet, this plan is attended wdth other results, interesting as 

 connected with their natural history ; thus it shows the periods 

 of duration of the various species, and the apparent influence 

 which season has upon their longevity, as well as the general 

 proportion of the sexes to each other. In summer and the 

 early autumnal months we find that three weeks is about the 

 average duration of a species, reckoning from the first appear- 

 ance of the insect till it ceases to visit the honeyed skep, and as 

 it does so in all appearance fresh from the chrysalis no mis- 

 take can be made. Later in autumn the time becomes ex- 

 tended, and the few species that fly in the milder evenings of 

 the winter months continue to be taken from November to the 

 end of February, as we have captured examples of Calocampa 

 exoleta, Glaa Satellitia and Glcea Vaccinii during all the in- 

 termediate months. In March Orthosia stabilis appears, 

 and is soon succeeded by Semiophora gothica and one or two 



