294 
WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA 
Mandeville, Montego Bay; G. hyalinata, Linn. One at Montego Bay ; 
a pearly dark-bordered moth; G. aurocostalis, Guen. Three : Montego 
Bay, Spanish Town ; white with fawn-coloured costa.-— Leucinodes 
orbonalis, Guen. Three at Contant Spring.— NomopMla noctuella, 
SchifF. Two: Constant Spring, Castleton. This is one of the most 
generally distributed of moths.— Platytes opposita, Zell. Common : 
Constant Spring, Mackfield; a tiny silver-white Crambid. 
Tineidae. — Autoceras mixta , Moschl. Four : Castleton, Montego 
Bay, Walderston ; a Hyponomeutid. 
For the entomologist who, in consequence of age, infirmity, 
fatigue, or mere lack of enterprise, does not venture into the wilds 
by night, the lamp is an excellent means of collecting, and one by 
which some insight may be obtained into the moth fauna of a locality 
of which the traveller might otherwise have no idea. It has, how¬ 
ever, two grave disadvantages : (1) a great number of odd specimens 
are obtained, and (2) it gives no information as to the place of abode, 
or mode of life of the insects captured. 1 Boxing moths off lamps is 
much like cutting stamps off envelopes, it does not tell you any¬ 
thing about the countries from which they come. “ Light ” is admir¬ 
able from the point of view of the systematists and of the “mere 
collector,” but not very profitable to the naturalist. 
JAMAICAN BEETLES. 
I did not spend much time in looking for Beetles, and what little 
work I did in that way was disappointing. As a group the Lamelli- 
corns were the most obvious. Rotten wood produced fair numbers of 
Scalmus ( Ninus ) interstitialis, Esch., a large beetle which I found at 
Constant Spring, Mackfield, and Port Antonio. When handled, 
especially when first handled, they emitted a creaking sound, caused 
by an evident up-and-down movement of the abdomen, but whether 
or no this rubs against the elytra, I was not able to satisfy myself. 
The rufous colour of young individuals presents a fine contrast to 
the black of adults. At Stoney Hill, near Constant Spring, a dead 
specimen of Macraspis tetradactyla, Linn., was found in a rotten 
log; my servant took another at Walderston flying in the garden. 
A Gymnetis lanius, Linn., locally known as the “ News-bug ”—being 
the supposed bringer of news—was found in a house at Walderston ; it 
is a creature with very hard integuments. Ligyrus tumulosus , Burm., 
Mr. F. R. D. Onslow says that light attracts far more males than females. 
