200 THE YOUNG NATURALIST. [0c tob E r 



afternoons, but the time of flight is shortly after dusk until mid- 

 night." The following may be taken as a sample of an evening's 

 work with this species. On the evening of July 29 (1889), Mr. A. J. 

 Hodges and myself were on a piece of ground on the banks of the 

 Yar, in the Isle of Wight, overgrown with Statics limonium. Patiently 

 waiting from about 7 p.m., not a moth would make its appearance, 

 until suddenly, at 7.45, a number of moths were simultaneously 

 detected fluttering up the stems, and in a few minutes they were in 

 large numbers. For about half-an-hour they were very active, but 

 as the darkness increased, the species became more and more difficult 

 to find, and, although long after dark, odd specimens could be taken 

 with a light by searching, the method of capture is too slow to be 

 profitable. 



Any account of this species would be incomplete without mention- 

 ing the difficulty of setting it. It is a work of art, and the man who 

 can successfully manipulate bennetii can set anything. When killed, 

 the moths, by means of a wedge-shaped fold in the upper and under 

 wings, roll both into a compact kind of double tube, which resists 

 the efforts of the manipulator to unroll it, but I found that pressure 

 with a bristle or pointed piece of paper, applied judiciously at the 

 extreme base of the anterior wings, would cause them to unroll, 

 and they could then be set readily. The legs, too, from their exces- 

 sive length are a great trouble, and not a large proportion come off 

 the setting-boards with well-set wings and six perfect legs. 



Cnamidophorusj Wallengren. 



This genus is exceedingly rare in the Palaearctic area ; Dr. Staud- 

 inger gives only two species in his " Catalogue," and I believe the 

 genus is altogether unknown in America. In Britain we have one of 

 the two Palaearctic species, viz., rhododactylus, which has a wide Euro- 

 pean range. 



This genus is thus chacterised by Wallengren : — " Antennae of both 

 sexes with very short cilia. Forehead without any tuft, only a few 

 slightly prominent hairs between the antennae. Palpi not longer than 

 the head, the intermediate joint thickened with down, the last joint 

 short and pointed. Legs short, all the tibiae thickened towards the 

 apex by a tuft of scales ; the posterior tibiae thickened in the middle. 

 First pair of spines in the posterior tibiae slender and very unequal, 

 second pair nearly equal. Anterior wings not divided to a third part 

 of their length, the segments broad, the posterior segment almost 

 hatchet-shaped, the posterior angle of both segments well marked. 



