496 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 



To capture them in that position was an impossibility, for 

 not only did you run the risk of ripping 3'our net all to pieces, 

 but loosing your quarr}^ in the bargain. 



I had been told by a celebrated collector, who has made 

 annual trips to this State for a number of years, that he had 

 once taken A. yiicccc, var. coloradensis , without any trouble, 

 by getting up in the earl 3^ morning before sunrise, when he 

 found them clinging to the stem of the jaiccae asleep ; all he 

 had to do was to pick them off with his finger and thumb and 

 put them in his killing bottle. 



Profiting by such information, I undertook to try it myself, 

 so taking blankets and supplies along I camped on the spot for 

 three days and nights, where I had previously located streckeri. 

 I maj' add, right here, the scheme did not work at all in this 

 instance, but I was rewarded for my trouble in another unex- 

 pected way. 



What I did discover, however, proved conclusively that A. 

 streckeri in habits is as much a moth as a butterfly. 



While sitting quietly by my camp-fire waiting for water to 

 boil to make coffee, the sun having not long gone over the La 

 Plata range in the dim distance, my attention was drawn hy a 

 loud humming sound that seemed to come from all around nie. 

 Upon investigation, to my great astonishment, I saw numbers 

 of 9 strekeri flitting in and out and among the sage brush and 

 yuccae, each bent upon seeking a suitable yuccae plant to deposit 

 her eggs on. Even at this late hour of the day I found them 

 very alert and wary, and they seemed readily able to detect my 

 presence and avoid me whenever I attempted a move to make 

 a capture. 



I found the most successful modus operandi to adopt to effect 

 their capture was to follow one cautiously as it flitted from one 

 yuccae plant to another and get up to it as near as possible so 

 as to be within striking distance the moment it paused on the 

 spine of a yuccae to deposit its egg. During the process of egg 

 laying its wings still continued to l>e in motion similar to a hawk 

 moth, and it took but a few seconds to deposit its single egg. 

 It would then detach itself suddenly from the yuccae with a 

 snapping sound and continue its search for another suitable 



