184 
A. E. GIBBS—LEPIDOPTEBA OE ST. ALBANS. 
Thicket Wood. 
This list enumerates species caught in the wood or its immediate 
neighbourhood. The sallows on the railway banks have yielded a 
large number of insects, and on some favourable nights it is no 
exaggeration to say that hundreds of moths have been shaken 
from one tree. 
Tor the benefit of those who are not entomologists I may be 
permitted to make a few remarks upon sallow-beating. The spring, 
when the different species of Salix are in bloom, should be a 
busy time with the insect-hunter. A calm, moonless night should 
be chosen, if it is a little damp it will not matter; and then, 
armed with a bull’s-eye lantern, some chip-boxes, and a bundle of 
old newspapers, the hunting-ground should be visited. The method 
I adopt is to first examine with the aid of the lantern those parts 
of the tree that are within reach, transferring all the specimens 
that are required to the chip boxes. The insects are attracted to 
the sallow by the sweet juices contained in the nectaries of the 
florets composing the catkins, and when they are busy feeding, or 
perhaps indisposed for exertion after a good meal, they fall an easy 
prey. When all the rarer insects within reach have been captured, 
the newspapers may be spread upon the ground and the tree 
vigorously shaken, when the insects fall down in dozens on to the 
sheets, and may be selected and boxed at leisure. Bricket Wood 
has proved a capital spot for this kind of work. Most of the insects 
taken “at sallow” belong to the family Orthosidce , and the commoner 
ones to the genus Tceniocampa. T. gothica , stabilis , instahilis , and 
cruda may be taken in great numbers on a favourable night, and 
indeed it would be no exaggeration to say that occasionally I could 
easily have taken several hundred specimens of the last-named 
moth, on the many sallow bushes to be found within the radius of 
a mile of the station. It is said that the chrysalids of these four 
moths may be found in equally large numbers by digging at the foot 
of oak trees in October, but of this I cannot speak from experience. 
Some scarce day-flying moths may also be taken at Bricket 
Wood, and the district will well repay working. 
I have alluded to the success which has occasionally attended 
sugaring here. I have principally visited Bricket Wood for this 
purpose in the autumn, and have then taken scores of specimens of 
diluta , oxyacanthce , aprilina , proteus, and other moths. I find it 
best to select trees in a clearing or by one of the ridings, and to 
visit the same tree on successive nights. The insects appear to get 
used to looking for the sugar at the same place, and larger numbers 
come under these circumstances than when one wanders about from 
one spot to another. A mild, cloudy night, without too much wind, 
but just enough breeze to spread the scent of the sugar, is the best 
time to choose. My experience shows that no better preparation 
can be used than coarse treacle with enough rum added to strongly 
scent it. This should be applied by means of a large paint-brush to 
the bark of selected trees, about four or five feet from the ground. I 
