Capper : Lepidoptera in the New Forest. 



187 



The same STimmer I engaged the services of Walter Oliver as a 

 companion for a fortnight, commencing the 11th July. We had a 

 glorious time of it, working night and day. When I mention that I 

 frequently worked eighteen hours a day, either capturing or pinning 

 out my trophies, you will give me credit for some industry. We 

 usually commenced our excursions at say ten o'clock in the morning, 

 returning home at six or seven o'clock, and after a hasty dinner-tea, 

 started for the night's sugaring. 



Nothing can describe the profusion of butterflies, Sibylla, Papliia, 

 Adippe, Aglala, &c., swarming. We took a considerable number of 

 Valezina, hardly troubling ourselves with the others. 



This was one of the celebrated seasons for Sponsa and Promism. 

 These beautiful insects are taken every year in the Forest, but some 

 years much more abundantly than others. In the years 1870-71 they 

 were in the greatest profusion. There is great excitement in their 

 capture. The sugar ought to be applied quite early in the evening, as 

 the moths come to it long before it is dark. It was usual to sugar a 

 considerable area, and the trees some distance apart, and we had 

 positively to run over our sugaring ground. Activity in all ways is a 

 necessity, as the moths are extremely coy, and do not generally settle 

 on the sugar, but are very restless and easily alarmed. To take them 

 in a net and immediately chloroform them we found the most success- 

 ful way of securing them, but unless this is done most expeditiously 

 they are sure to injure themselves, exhibiting a bald head. I never 

 experienced such a season for sugaring ; our trees were covered with 

 hosts of Noctua ; Turca and Pi/ramidea so numerous that we had to 

 brush them away in capturing more valuable game. 



Until accustomed to it, sugaring in a large forest — or indeed any- 

 where — in the middle of the night is rather a weird-like occupation. 

 Examining the sugar for the Catocalaswas, lively enough, as we used to 

 hunt in couples — one netting whilst the other held the lantern ; but 

 frequently we sugared our own particular trees, which we then 

 examined, fixing a certain place to meet one another. The owls of the 

 forest did not cheer our spirits, as they used to hoot most horribly. 



A brother of mine from Southampton came over for a day's mothing 

 with us, and expressed a desire to see how we sugared. We fitted him 

 up with a lantern, gave him a ride in a wood to sugar and examine, 

 telling him to meet us at a certain time. He had quite enough of it, 

 and said, when we met, that he had never passed a more horridly 

 lonely night in his life, and should prefer company on the next round- 

 This reminds me of an adventure that happened to a brother entomo- 



