[43] COLLECTIONS OF NOCTUIDJG U AT SUGAK." 155 



V. COLLCTIONS OF NOCTUIDAE "AT SUGAR." 



AT SCHENECTADY, N. Y., IN 1875. 



The list below given is a record of collections made between 

 the 7th of July and the close of the season on the 25th of Oc- 

 tober. It includes all the species of Noctuidse (one hundred 

 and thirty- one in number) that were captured or observed on 

 the fifty -three evenings devoted to the work three or four 

 evenings of each week. A few species of Bombycidse, Phalse- 

 nidae, Pyralidse and some Microlepidoptera were also taken, 

 which are not embraced in the list. 



The attempts previously made by me at collecting by sugar- 

 ing, had been attended with no success. The satisfactory 

 results obtained at this time are to be ascribed to persistent 

 and more extended sugaring than before employed. The lo- 

 cality was not an unusually favorable one, for, instead of 

 choosing a place for the purpose " on the border of some wood," 

 as has been usually recommended, where the proper number 

 of trees of a certain diameter and character of bark could be 

 found, the collections were entirely confined to my garden 

 not a large one in the city of !Schenectady. It was an un- 

 expected revelation that collections of such a variety and ex- 

 tent could be made within city limits, and in a garden where 

 the presence of flowers undoubtedly interfered with the at- 

 tractions of the bait. But as the convenient locality of one's 

 own home may not always prove equally productive in other 

 cities, the statement should be made that my residence was 

 within a block of the Mohawk river which forms the northern 

 boundary of Schenectady, a city of comparatively small size, 

 numbering under 13,000 inhabitants. 



The slats and posts of a grape trellis of sixty feet in extent, 

 offered a convenient place upon which to spread the bait: the 

 leaves extending over the slats had been removed, except 

 at intervals, where they were permitted to remain to serve as 

 a cover or a lure to the moths attracted thither. The odor 

 diffused from the area of surface sugared computed at six- 

 teen square feet was evidently sufficient to draw the moths 



