THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



wacilenta, especially as there are beech trees not far away, and the greyish 

 Anchocelis pistacina, and also the dark reddish-brown Cerastis spadicea, of 

 the same size as Cerastis vacinii, and popularly known as the Dark Chesnut 

 Moth; together with one or two others mentioned last month. 



See ! a large moth dashes up to the light of the lantern. You think it is 

 a hawk moth by its size ; but no, I am much mistaken if it be not one of the 

 Sword -grass moths. Now we have secured it by a dexterous sweep of the 

 net, and we see it is Calocampa exoleta ; known to entomologists, who have 

 a liking for English names, as the common Sword-grass Moth. There is 

 another kind about now, known as the Red Sword-grass Moth (Calocampa 

 vetusta). Neither of them are at all generally abundant, and this last is the 

 scarcer of the two. Now another large moth flies up to our lantern, and 

 upon securing it we find it to be the rosy-tinned Angle-shades (Phlogophora 

 meticulosa) j and here comes a smaller one, which is evidently one of the 

 Thorn-moths, and we recognise it as the Feathered Thorn [Rimer a pennaria), 

 which, although not scarce, does not occur everywhere in equal abundance. 

 It has a stout body and downy thorax ; the forewings are of a reddish ochre- 

 ous colour^ with two dark fuscous lines, and a spot near the apex of the 

 wing. 



But now it is time we wend our way homeward, which we accordingly do, 

 well satisfied with our evening's work. There are some rarer moths, etc., 

 we might have met with were we lucky enough. These will be found men- 

 tioned at pages 250 and 251 of the last volume of the Young Naturalist, and 

 to repeat their names will take up too much space. 

 Cambridge. 



ON SETTING LEPIDOPTERA UNPINNED. 



By GEORGE COVERDALE. 



Many enthusiastic young naturalists, and some old ones too, whilst ener- 

 getically collecting the larger Lepidoptera, seem to ignore the very existence 

 of anything smaller than an " Eujoithecia" This is greatly to be deplored, 

 for none but those who study the " Micros" can realise the endless pleasures 

 and surprises in store for the thoughtful student of the Tortrices and Tineina. 

 The chief cause of this neglect of the smaller species is undoubtedly the great 

 difficulty experienced by many persons in pinning and setting their minute 

 captures, and the uncertainty afterwards of their preservation. To lessen 

 this difficulty and remove this uncertainty, much time has been spent in per- 

 fecting a system of setting, which enables anyone to prepare with comparative 



