THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



153 



A DAY'S "SCIENTIFIC" INSECT-HUNTING ON 

 THE ISLE OF MAN IN JUNE. 



By C. S. GREGSON. 



First, let me define what I mean by the term " Scientific Insect-hunting," 

 Decide where you intend to work, how long you intend to work, and what 

 species known to occur in the district you intend to work for. It is 

 generally said by collectors who have often worked on the Isle of Man, that 

 it is a grand place for two or three species, all of which can only be got at 

 dusk, whilst the whole of the day is a blank. There is just a little truth in 

 this as a general rule, because most of the Manx insects are such as are com- 

 mon everywhere, commoner at home than on the Isle of Man, but there is a 

 fallacy underlining the idea nevertheless, and with the permission of the 

 Editor of the Young Naturalist, I will try to shew how fully and how profit- 

 ably the day may be spent there, by such as will work scientifically, and who 

 will use their wits, and give a certain time to the place, and how to obtain in- 

 insects they have decided to work for. To run here and there after moths (often 

 myths) said to have been taken yonder, is a mistake young naturalists should 

 avoid ; choose your ground and work it out, and the time out, which you have 

 set yourself, and astonishing results will follow. Yery often the species usually 

 thought exclusively attached to ground some miles away, will turn up in 

 plenty close at home, the unexpected always happens ! It must also be borne 

 in mind that many species fly twice a day, and can only be found accidentally, 

 except during their time of flight. Knowing these things, of course, facilitates 

 the results you have in view, but if you do not know them, then there is all 

 the more reason that you should utilize the whole of the day-light to secure 

 the species which fly early, at noon, or at dusk. To illustrate my meaning, 

 I will give you an actual day's work of what I call scientific collecting in the 

 Isle of Man, in June (Jubilee morning), commencing at 5 a.m. On the rocks, 

 8. irrorella was flying in plenty, I secured 7 females and all the males I wished 

 before 7 o'clock, and T. filipendula was flying in hundreds, waving backwards 

 and forwards over the herbage growing on the slopes, but now I am amongst the 

 roses, Rosa spinosissima and Incurvaria canariella is on the wing, this species 

 flies again at 5 p.m., yet it is very rarely taken by amateur collectors, because 

 at 7 a.m. they are not out of the house, and at 5 p.m. most of them have 

 gone in to tea ! at other times it is only possible to smoke them out, and this 

 is dangerous work in such dry ground as the roses frequently grow in. At 

 8 o'clock my time was up, I set my best captures, and got breakfast before 

 9.30 for train to Castletown, for " Scarlet" Eocks, where I decided to work 



