NOTES ON ACENTROPUS NIVEUS. 

 By G. B. Corbin, Ringwood, Hants. 



Almost the bare mention of the name of Butterfly brings to our* 

 imagination something very pretty as well as fragile, and if we for 

 a moment turn our thoughts to the places they inhabit, or their times 

 of appearance, it requires no busy stretch of the fancy to associate 

 these handiworks of the Creator with other things that are bright 

 and beautiful in nature, such as woods, blooming heaths and moors, 

 &c., &c., all touched with the magic wand of summer. Not perhaps 

 in such a marked degree is this the case if we mention the name of 

 Moth, for with it we may reasonably associate what in our homes is 

 sometimes a source of inconvenience and trouble, and often consider- 

 able loss, where indeed everything composed of woollens, feathers, 

 and the like, are subject to be destroyed, if not well looked after. 



But the mention of Moth has a much wider meaning for some of 

 us, and instead of staying at home to detect the ravages of our little 

 winged enemies, we love to follow our allies to their dwelling-places, 

 in wood and forest, on hill or bog, to the fields or sea shore, or indeed 

 to wherever their varied homes may be; yet in many cases we 

 surprise our friends by searching such " odd places," and many of 

 them will scarcely credit that Moths are to be obtained by scanning 

 such out-of-the-way nooks and corners ; but every person who has 

 paid a little attention to the subject is fully cognizant of the fact, 

 and knows how infinitely varied are the habitations and modes of 

 life of the creatures we call Moths. We, however, who dabble in 

 the subject are often unprepared to receive the strange peculiarities 

 which present themselves to our notice during the investigation of a 

 subject, and many of us can quite believe that a Moth in its earlier 

 stages of existence lived on the flowers of certain plants, the foliage 

 of certain trees, as well as the pith and solid wood of the same, or 

 even in the stem of the flags and rushes by the river's sedgy 

 margin. All this, and much more, I say, we can believe, but when 

 we are told that the earlier stages of a Moth are passed in the bed of 

 the river, under the water, a smile of something akin to scepticism 

 is, I am sure, pardonable ; such, however, is the case with the tiny 

 species of insect whose name stands at the head of this article. 

 Well may some of our brethren express a doubt as to its identity 

 with the order we call Lepicloptera ; for myself I sm quite willing to 

 adopt the belief of the majority, who have assigned it a position in 

 the above order. 



N. S. Vol. i.— Oct., 1875. 



