82 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of "appearances" occur up to Christmas: it is much the 

 same with the larva of this species : u hen the food-plant is 

 growing the larva may always be found. — E. Newman. ~\ 



Aiencis pictaria at Brockenhiirst. — 1 have jtist returned 

 from Brockenhurst, Hampshire, where 1 have been spending 

 a few days with my friend Mr. Alfred Owen, seeking Lepi- 

 doplera. Some of the readers of the 'Entomologist' may be 

 interested in hearing that we have captured a number of 

 Aleucis pictaria: we do not think this locality has beibre 

 been recorded for this species. — Samuel James Capper; 

 Huytoif Park, near Liverpool, April 25, 1870. 



American Motli-lrap. — In answer to your query about 

 the "new and successful American moth-trap," 1 have found 

 it a complete failure. I bought one last year of Mr. Cooke 

 for thirty-two shillings, and sliould be very glad to sell it for 

 half that amount. 1 have used it on most favourable nights, 

 and have tried it many times without the slightest result, so 

 I can scarcely recommend it to your correspondent " S. J. C." 

 ■ — Clermont Livingston ; 31, Great St. Helen s, Bishopsgate, 

 April 6, 1870. 



American Moth- trap. — I have tried the American moth- 

 trap without the slightest success ; but 1 do not consider it 

 certain that the fault is in ihe trap, and mean to give it 

 another chance. — Edwin Birchall. 



American Moth-trap. — In answer to your correspondent 

 who was anxious to glean any facts concerning the American 

 moth-trap, I am able to say from experience tliat a more 

 useless article has never been manufactured. I have tried it 

 scores of times, in every conceivable position, but whether 

 strapped on to the top of a step-ladder, thereby looking like 

 a miniature lighthouse of Pharos, or placed in the opening of 

 a wood, or out of the window of a house, 1 have never been 

 able to secure more than two specimens of Arctia Menthrasti, 

 a few Lomaspilis marginata, and several Crambites, especially 

 C. culmellus. The apparatus itself is so cumbersome that it 

 requires two able-bodied workmen at least to carry it any 

 distance, and the amormt of oil it consumes is positively 

 fabulous, and, 1 need hardly say, quite incommensurate with 

 the v^alue of the insects it obtains, even at the dearest dealers. 

 The whole apparatus, again, is so very complicated that the 

 probabilities arc strongly in favour of an insect, especially a 



