946 Insects. 



boiled and mixed with a little rum, to be the best method of preparing the most at- 

 tractive lure : I have also tried honey with indifferent success. Mr. Gregson (Zool. 

 800), appears to have been fortunate in using a mixture of honey and sugar; and 

 surely this fact ought to stimulate entomologists to prepare other compounds of sweets, 

 to tempt the fastidious tastes of the objects of their pursuit. I intend doing so during 

 the coming season, and will communicate the results to * The Zoologist ;' but from the 

 coldness of the climate, I cannot expect to meet with any success till June ; but in 

 the interim, perhaps, some southern naturalist will favour his fellow-labourers with the 

 result of his experiments. I find that the honeysuckle is the favourite flower with 

 most of the moths which haunt our garden ; next to this comes the French marigold in 

 September : and from Silene inflata, I have captured more specimens than from all our 

 wayside flowers together : and I again repeat (Zool. 482), that I should feel greatly 

 obliged to any one who would publish a list of such flowers and shrubs as are chiefly 

 frequented by moths in England. I have not only applied prepared sugar to the 

 bark of trees and bushes, but also to their leaves and flowers, and the flowers of several 

 annual and perennial plants ; and with the solitary exception of one tree, I had very 

 little success, and the fickle disposition of the moths puzzled me much ; thus I only 

 captured two specimens during the whole season, from off a birch tree growing near to 

 a rude arbour, overgrown with honeysuckle, whose flowers were a source of great at- 

 traction, and I could not discover these insects manifested any marked partiality for 

 those corollas which contained a drop of sugar, over those secreting their native nectar. 

 From the trunk of a poplar growing in a comer of the garden, and within a few feet 

 of a hedgerow which stretched away some four hundred yards in one direction, and 

 whose ditch banks were a chosen resort of many species, I captured a number of 

 moths which were sufficient to remunerate me for all my time and trouble, and many 

 of them were strangers to me, but for want of illustrated works, and of access to a 

 labelled collection, I cannot furnish you with a catalogue of their names. I attended 

 to Mr. Douglas's directions in the main, but having no lantern, I knelt down, and 

 thus I was enabled to see every specimen as it appeared about the tree. I noted how 

 they came trooping along the hedgerow, how some descended at once upon the tree, 

 how others described many gyrations previous to alighting, and how some flew past 

 without searching after the source of the nectariferous scent which filled the air in 

 that quiet corner. Some nights they abounded, and then I found that they were shy 

 and wary, and again they would feed greedily, and return promptly, even though re- 

 peatedly struck at with the net whilst on the wing ; one evening in particular, two or 

 three individuals alighted on my soiled hands, and on the neck of the bottle, as I was 

 applying the mixture with a brush : on some occasions not a single moth appeared ; 

 the laws which seem to regulate their appearance are most mysterious. In conclusion, 

 I beg to state, that by confining my captures of the larger species in pill boxes, after 

 returning to the house, I raised the lid, so as to obtain a view of the insect, and if I 

 found that I already possessed a sufficiency of the species, I restored the insect to life 

 and liberty. — Archibald Hepburn ; January 29, 1845. 



Pyralis manualis of Zool. 763. I am sorry to inform you that the supposed Py- 

 ralis manualis mentioned at the page above referred to, turns out to be an American 

 insect, but I have no doubt the person who gave it me believed it to be British. I 

 shall feel obliged by your correcting this mistake. — Thomas H. Allis ; York, \(ith 

 February, 1845. 



The identity of tivo obscure {and little knoivn) British Moths with the Geometra 



