84 
TRIPH^^NA FIMBHIA. 
year 1836, however, appears to have been singularly favourable to the appear¬ 
ance of this insect, affording another example of those extraordinary, and never 
yet sufficiently accounted for, irregular periodical appearance of certain species, 
favoured, no doubt, by some atmospheric influence of which our senses allow us no 
perception. The neighbourhood of Doncaster has, however, in most years pro¬ 
duced some individuals of the species in question; indeed, as it was only last 
year that the proper method of procuring them, which I am about to relate, was 
discovered, it is very probable, that more might have been obtained, if they had 
been sought in what the experience of the past summer has proved to be the 
proper manner. The locality in which they have been usually and chiefly taken 
in this neighbourhood, is ‘‘ Sandall Beat,” on the north-side of the race-course. 
The first living specimen I saw was in Melton Wood, near here; it was .beaten 
out of a young Ash-tree, by the person who was with me. • He did not see it at 
first, until I pointed it out flying down into a corn field close at hand, and he 
immediately recognised it as fimbria^ having taken the species before, though I 
at that time did not know it, but only remarked it as an usual Moth. Subse¬ 
quently he found the specimen in the corn-field,, and the following day I went to 
Sandall Beat, as being the best known locality, in quest of more, and was so 
fortunate as to procure four specimens ; nor shall I soon forget the pleasure with 
which I beheld the first specimens secured, and in fine preservation. I did not 
hear of any more specimens being taken at Melton Wood, and very few others 
appeared to frequent the Ash, nearly all being procured from the Oaks. In all, 
I procured eighty-nine, and many hundreds were taken by other collectors, 
though nearly all in Sandall Beat. Most of mine were captured by my servant, 
or by a gamekeeper who lives near the wood ; of the latter I bought many, and 
he, seeing the demand the insects were in, thought it a good opportunity of turn¬ 
ing his wanderings in the woods to some account. 
In former years, the noon was considered the best time for taking Triphcena 
fimbria^ as they occasionally fly then, particularly on sunny days; but their 
flight is then very rapid and wild, and by the tops of the trees, generally in a 
straight line for a considerable distance. When on the wing, they much resemble 
the commoner species, innuha and pronuba^ on which account I have no doubt 
they have often been mistaken. The best time to get them (and if I had dis¬ 
covered this in time, which I now make known to others, I could, I doubt not, 
have procured five times as many as I did), is in a very heavy, dull, or foggy 
day, or even when it is raining fast. Then they will not fly off at all, when 
the trees are shaken, or kicked, which is the way to get them out or down, but 
fall down, either close by the tree, or slanting off to a little distance from it. 
The heavier the atmosphere, the more apparently lifeless they fall down, and if 
it is finer farther off, generally flying quite away when the sun shines brightly^ 
