THE LEPIDOPTERA OF BERLIN. 205 



were fairly common, the latter being by no means easy to capture, 

 as, although a conspicuous insect, its colour harmonizes well 

 against a background of bilberry and pine-trunks, and it is more 

 often lost sight of than captured. Another conspicuous species 

 easily lost sight of is L. hastata ; its habit is to fly about twelve 

 feet from the ground, and it has a very undulating flight ; con- 

 sequently, when flying amongst trees with the light shining 

 through them, it easily eludes capture. Nothing further of 

 interest was observed until we reached the restaurant where we 

 were to dine, when my brother, who had been for a stroll round 

 the lake, brought me a fine fresh specimen oi Lithostege farinata, 

 Hufn. 



After dinner we made tracks for the beech woods, and while 

 crossing a small meadow I observed Ino statices in some numbers 

 on flower-heads. The beech woods unfortunately proved a 

 failure as far as T. consonaria was concerned, not a single speci- 

 men being found by four diligent searchers ; but Demas coryli, 

 Dasychira pudihinda, Lithosia aureola, and Ephyra trilineata 

 were found in odd specimens, and an occasional Tephrosia luri- 

 data raised our hopes in vain. Larentia variata. was found in a 

 small pine wood, but nothing further of note. On the way home 

 E. undidata was more easily captured, as it adopted the habit of 

 flying lazily along the road. Amongst the bilberry, T. putata 

 was, as usual, freshly emerging, and I started up, but lost a fine 

 specimen of Bomolocha fontis. 



On June 6th, 8th, and 11th I sugared, with my friend Zobel, 

 in the neighbourhood of Bernau ; the locality chosen, at first 

 sight, did not look at all promising, the sugared trees being on 

 the border of an extensive pine wood ; adjoining was a barren 

 waste of land, overgrown with rank grass and, what appealed 

 especially to us, patches of heather ; the insect we had hope of 

 getting being Agrotis molotliina, an ally of A. strigida, and up to 

 then only known in four or five specimens by Berlin. We had 

 already sugared this spot about five times without any result 

 worth speaking about. However, patience was at length rewarded, 

 as on the three nights in question not only did we get our A. 

 molothina in thirty to forty specimens, but also discovered four 

 other insects, which are reckoned amongst Berlin's rarities ; 

 they were Mamestra aliena, Hadena adiista var. haltica (probably 

 a good species, as it is quite different to English adusta), Cara- 

 drina selini var. milleri, and Agrotis candalarum. All these 

 species were abundant ; in one evening alone my take was forty- 

 four C. var. milleri, twelve M. aliena, and fifteen var. haltica. 

 But this by no means ends the list ; other lesser stars were also 

 in abundance : — Acronycta ahscondita, A. rumicis, Agrotis strigida, 

 A. linogrisea, A. orhona (suhsequa), A. cinerea, A. exclamationis, 

 A. yp>silon, A. segetum, A. prasina, A. occulta, Mamestra leiico- 

 ph(Ba, M. advena, M. nebidosa, M. hrassicce, M. albicolon, M. 



