iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



3 



The great bulk of them were however extraordinarily common, and I 

 think I never anywhere saw so small a proportion of good insects in 

 such a multitude of specimens. Probably in point of numbers 

 Leucania impuva took the lead, but during the earlier part of our visit 

 L. pudorina was in full force, and had been perhaps still more 

 abundant before our arrival ; the local collectors said indeed that 

 " bushels " of this species might have been taken, though it will be 

 safer to accept that as exaggeration. Many of the specimens, 

 especially the pink tinted ones, were very pretty. Very fine Agrotis 

 aquilina also occurred, the difference between them and A . tvitici being 

 so marked even when on the sugar, that I cannot bring myself to 

 regard this as nothing more than a form of that species. Two speci- 

 mens of a noctua came to Mr. Tutt's sugar, which he shewed to me 

 as Hadena adusta, but I at once expressed a doubt about their being 

 that species, as not only was the locality very unlikely, but it was 

 much too late for adttsta, even in this inordinately late season. Mr. 

 Tutt now believes them to be Hadena satura, and I believe he is 

 right in his determination. A^. hellnianni also visited sugar as much 

 as it did the lamps, and Apamea fibrosa gradually increased in numbers 

 all through our stay, becoming very common at the end, some 

 beautiful forms were secured. A few L. phragmitidis were also taken, 

 but this species was not so common as we expected to have found it. 

 In the lane Cosmia affinis was abundant, many of them being very 

 pretty. Agrotis nigricans were very fine, some being to our surprise, 

 nearly as black as the Lancashire coast specimens. One morning 

 was spent by Mr. Tutt and myself in an old barn in the village, work- 

 ing among the "rubbish " feeders ; the place was alive with moths, and 

 we probably saw more Pyralis favinalis there than either of us had 

 ever seen in all our previous collecting experience. There were 

 hundreds of them, and they sat in every conceivable position, dozens 

 of them being evidently just as confortable perched head downwards 

 on a spiders web, as on a barn rafter, the spiders apparently taking as 

 little heed of them, as they of the spiders ! Perhaps a still more 

 abundant species was Tinea misella, of which any number might have 

 been boxed. Several other ordinary barn species of Tinea, Qicophora 

 and Aglossa occurred with them, but my own special search was 

 for Aglossa cuprealis, of which I secured several fine specimens, but 

 this species required looking for. One afternoon too, I collected a 

 nice lot of larvae of Hecatera dysodea from lettuce seeds in a garden in 

 the village, and where some days previously Mr. Tutt had also made 

 a good haul from the same plants. 



Ordinary mothing on and about the fen, produced various species 

 not obtained either by light or sugar, but it is now perhaps unnecessary 



