Each particular flower must be carefully examined. You may hold the light 

 fairly close, for during the night hours the moths are well hidden and if you 

 should happen to disturb them they will fall to the ground and may be picked 

 up with the forceps. They seem to be asleep during the later hours, but for the 

 first two hours or more of darkness are feeding. Rare specimens can thus be 

 obtained which do not often come to light or sugar. To take them place the 

 open mouth of the bottle just under them and flip them into it by touching 

 them on the head with the forefinger. Sometimes you may bend the flower 

 stem and insert it with the moth directly into the bottle. The catkins of the 

 willow, or what we children called "pussy willows," are the first flowers in 

 Truckee, and there are rare moths which can always be found early in the 

 Spring fluttering about and sipping the willow blossoms. They can be taken 

 with the lamp and poison bottle, or sometimes with a hand net. Their flight 

 begins at dusk and lasts a couple of hours. 



TWILIGHT COLLECTING. 



Many of the Sphinx or the Hawk-moths, visit the honeysuckle and other 

 flowers just at twilight. They are sometimes called "Humming-bird Moths," 

 and every child who is familiar with flowers has seen them feeding about dusk 

 and may have mistaken them for humming birds. The Hepialus family or the 

 species of it with which I am familiar can only be taken during the time between 

 the evening twilight and dark. As the dusk is deepening the males may be seen 

 darting swiftly two or three feet above the grassy meadows, searching for the 

 wingless females, which are concealed among the grass roots. You must take 

 them on the wing and must handle the net with quick, expert strokes. While 

 pursuing them it often occurs that they suddenly and mysteriously disappear, 

 seeming literally to "vanish into thin air." In reality, they have darted down 

 into the grass, but the movement is so swift and unexpected that in the semi- 

 darkness it is indistinguishable. 



BEATING AND SWEEPING. 



Entomological houses advertise beating nets and sweeping nets. Beating 

 bushes and branches of trees with a club, either day or night, and sweeping 

 grass and low shrubs, yield large quantities of larvae, beetles and insects. Papers 

 or a sheet can be spread upon the ground under the branches while beating or 

 a large tray or shallow paper box may be used. Just before sunset is an excellent 

 time to sweep the weeds and shrubs, especially on warm evenings. 



BEST CALIFORNIA COLLECTING GROUNDS. 



Dr. William Barnes, of Decatur, 111., writes: 



"I think one of the best collecting places in California would be around 

 Tehachapi Pass, Havilah, Kern County, and from there on up into the head- 

 waters of the Kern River. At Tehachapi Pass, if you strike it right, you 

 would get Lycasna Clara and Argynnis Atossa. These are found nowhere 

 else in the world, and Atossa especially you ought to sell at a good price. 

 Another good place would be the high Alpine prairies above the Yosemite. 

 Colias Behrii is found there and nowhere else. You could find the proper 

 locality there by inquiring where old man Lembert used to live. He used 

 to have a cabin up there and was found dead in his cabin, supposed to have 

 been killed by the Indians. Everybody in that region knows of him. Calo- 



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