THE YOUNG NATUBALIST. 



201 



NOCTURNAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



By ERNEST ANDERSON. 



Most lepidopterists have experienced, in the course of their researches, 

 occasions when they have been compelled to cease operations at the most in- 

 teresting and productive time, in consequence of having to catch the last train 

 home, in many instances having a mile or two to walk to the station, causing 

 a still further waste of time, as, generally speaking, very few observations can 

 be made on the road. 



There are only two alternatives to the above, namely, to stay late and then 

 walk home, or to stay on the ground throughout the night, returning by the 

 first train in the morning. Certainly, in some cases, a bed may be secured 

 somewhere near, but even then objections are raised against the collector 

 staying out late. I am more particularly referring to cases when some par- 

 ticular night turns out unusually productive, which generally happens when 

 least expected or prepared for. 



Experience teaches us that such occasions must be at once taken advant- 

 age of, in fact it is another instance of " Make your hay while the sun shines/' 

 for one may find a species in abundance one day, and hunt in vain for it the 

 next. The idea of staying out all night is, however, by the majority of col- 

 lectors, considered to be out of the question, a variety of fears and fancies of 

 chills, ague, exhaustion, &c, presenting themselves to their imagination. As 

 a matter of fact, however, a night in the woods, especially during the summer 

 or early autumn, is fraught with little risk of the above kind, and the natura- 

 list is well repaid for his hardihood, by having as it were the gates of another 

 world opened to him. 



My first experience of a night's collecting was in July, 1881, and it was 

 brought about in the following way. A very animated discussion had taken 

 place among some entomologists (myself being of the number) respecting the 

 habits of the crepuscular geometers, several affirming that in all probability 

 the evening flight was renewed just before daybreak. The species with which 

 the argument was chiefly connected was Angerona prunaria, and finally a 

 party of us determined to stay out all night in order to investigate its habits 

 and settle the matter. We found that this species confines its flight from 

 twilight to about half-past ten o'clock, and no signs of it were to be found 

 either just before, or at daybreak, though we were in the same glades where 

 it had been plentiful the evening before. The only geometers that occurred 

 at daybreak were Metrocampa margaritata and Asthena candidata, and these 

 were less numerous than they were during the previous evening. We found 

 the night pass very quickly, and we suffered no inconvenience from cold, 



