even the most skilful of entomologists is forced to refer to liis hooks before he can, with any confidence, assign to some sixty or a hundred Noctuse their exact names.

As they mostly fly by night, and are always attracted by light, these Moths form the greater number of those wliich are captured by the familiar and -most efficacious process of ‘ sugaring.’ This process may be briefly explained. The intending sugarer mixes together the roughest and coarsest of sugar — ‘ foots ’ as it is called — with water or beer, and boils them together. I believe that water is quite as efficacious as beer. He may then cork it up tightly in bottles, and keep it until he wants to use it.

On some dark, calm evening — the latter attribute being absolutely necessary — the entomologist pours a sufficiency of the mixture into a basin, adds a few spoonfuls of new rum, and steeps in it ten to sixteen pieces of old rag. When the rags are thoroughly soaked, he removes them, allows the superfluous moisture to drip from them, puts the saturated rags into a tightly closed vessel, and pours the rest of the sweet liquid into the bottle, in readiness for the next occasion.

Provided with a number of pill-boxes, the ordinary net, pins, forceps, and other entomological paraphernalia, the collector further adds a dark lantern — not a ‘ bull’s-eye ’ — a box of matches, and a small bottle of chloroform, or, in default thereof, a ‘ laurel-bottle,’ in which the pounded lam-el leaves are made up into little packets about as wide as a sixpence and as thick as a penny. Arrived at a spot where there are plenty of trees, the collector lights his lantern, takes the saturated rags from the box, and pins them upon the trunks of trees, taMng care to arrange them as nearly as possible in a circle, so as to concentrate the odour of the sugar and rum. When he has pinned up the last piece of rag, he sees that his apparatus is all in good order, and slowly goes round his former track, always taking care to throw the light of the lantern on the rags.

Should the night be favourable, an extraordinary sight presents itself. Hundreds of Moths are converging upon the spot from all directions, and as many others are gathered round the sweet mixture, while every now and then the two round eyes of some large Moth glow amid the darkness like two balls of fire. Some of the commoner kinds are often in

such profusion as to be absolutely annoying, crowding to the

sugar in multitudes, and quite distracting the eye of the collector from the Moths which he wishes to take. With a little

practice, however, the task of selection becomes a tolerably easy

one, and there are few nights when valuable additions may not

be made to the cabinet. When the collector has made the. round of his sugar rags often enough, he unpins them, and puts them back into the tin box ready to serve for another occasion. This plan is far less cumbrous than the old method of carrying ajar of sugar and beer and a brush wherewith to spread the compound on the trees.

Most of the pupae of the Noctuas undergo their changes beneath the surface of the ground, and the chrysalids that are found by the collector when ‘ digging for pupae ’ generally belong to this group of insects.

Odr first example of the Noctuas is the pretty Peach- Blossom Moth {Thyatira batis), which is represented on Woodcut LIII. Fig. 3.

This very pretty Moth has received its popular name in consequence of the colouring of the wings. The upper pair are olive-brown, decorated with four large and conspicuous spots, the largest being at the base of the wing, and one smaller spot on the inner margin. These spots are lovely pink in the middle, sui’rounded. with white, and each of them really does bear some resemblance to the petal of a peachblossom. A few bars of rose-colour cross the brown thorax. The body is brown, and has a small crest on the back of the second, third, and fourth segments. The beautiful pink colour of the spots is very liable to fade, unless the insect be very carefully kept in the dark. Several of my specimens have almost lost their lovely pink in consequence of being kept in a badly constructed cabinet. The Moth is tolerably common.

llie larva of this insect is a very odd-looking creature, as may be seen by reference to Fig. a on the same Woodcut! Its colour is warm chestnut-brown mottled with grey, and the surface has a velvety aspect. One peculiarity in this caterpillar is that it seems to make no use either of its true legs or of the claspers at the end of its body, but clings to its food plant by means of the claspers of the middle of the body.

The largest hump is that of the third segment, and it is furnished at the top with a cleft projection. This curious larva can be found on the common bramble, and is in best condition about the end of August, or beginning of September, when it is full-fed, and about to ‘ spin up.’ When it finally ceases to feed it spins a slight cocoon, which it fastens among the leaves, changes into the pupal state, and makes its appear- LIIl

Platepteryx falcula. 2. Psyche opacella. 3. Thyatira batis. 4. Diphthera Orion. a. Thyatira, larva. 6. Psyche, larva.

ance as a Moth in the ensuing summer. This pretty INIoth about Oxford when I was collecting

used to be very plentiful

there. It belongs to the family Trifidse.

of the BombycoidsE— a Aloth quite as

Next comes an example insect, but with a different style o

beautiful as the preceding Its scientific name is Diphthera Orion, and its

beauty. du Jour. See Woodcut LIII. Fig. •

title the ScAiiCE Merveil the upper wings is very remarkable. I e

The colour of

; ground hue is bright green, across which four pure white

stripes are drawn longitudinally, and three black jagged bars

transversely. The two middle white stripes are the widest, the ; two others being quite narrow, one running close to the costal ( margin of tlie wing, and the other equally close to the hind

margin. The hind margin is edged with a row of spots having

the centre white and the exterior black. The head is green,

like the upper wings, and the thorax is green in the middle, black in front, and black and pale green behind. The lower wings are smoky-grey, and with a dark spot on the disc, and a few white lines at the anal angle.

The caterpillar is a very pretty larva, blue-black on the back, and adorned with orange and pale yellow on the sides. It has been known to feed both on birch and oak, and Mr. Crewe, who reared some of these insects from the egg, thinks that the caterpillar feeds alternately on oak and birch, passing from one to the other at will. I scarcely see how this can be the case, as oak and birch trees are not always in proximity to each other, and, unless their branches actually touched, it is difficult to see how the larva could pass from one tree to another. The pupa forms for itself a cocoon of gnawed wood, and the perfect insect appears in June. It is a rare species, but has been found in Kent, the New Forest, near Ipswich, and one or two other localities.

The Moth which is represented on Woodcut LIV. Fig. 1, is an instance of an insect, which was once plentiful, becoming rare. Its popular name is the Double-line, and its scientific title is Leucama turca. It is an example of the the family group Genuinse, and Leucanidae.

The colour of this Moth is simple. The ground hue of the upper wings is brick-red, very much like that of red blottingpaper, but rather duller and browner, and across them are drawn two dark brown bars, which have gained for the insect its popular name. In the middle of the wing is a small curved, white spot. The lower wings are pale bro^vn, becomin^^ reddish on the margins.

The larva feeds on wood grasses, and is mostly to be found in the southern parts of England, especially those which are near the coast. The Moth appears in June.

On the same Woodcut, at Fig. 3, is shown the too common Caubage Moth {Mamestra brassicce). 1 1

That this Moth subserves some good purpose is evident from the fact of its existence, but what that purpose may be is not |c easy to discover. It may, perhaps, be useful in keeping down the too abundant vegetation in wild and uncultivated countries, and so may have done good service when this land was one vast i-ls

Leucania turca. 2. Agrotls segetum. 3. Mamestra brassicte. -1. Tryphmnn janthina. i a. Tryphaana) larva. and our predecessors used flint instead of steel, hunting-ground, and a wash of woad by way of dress. At all events, it is veiy much out of place so far as regards civilised society, and we ' could well spare it if it had been improved ofif the face of ^ in company with the wolf, the beai’, and the bea%er. j creation, caterpillar of this Moth is one of the most voracious ,

The in this country. It can eat almost any herb, but herb-feeders those which belong to the cabbage tribe. As for those j prefers

l> which are cultivated with solid masses of vegetation, such as i the summer-cabbage and the broccoli, this larva is terribly |) destructive, burrowing through and through the very heart of ( tlie vegetable, and leaving behind it a track or gallery, filled : with the watery juices of the plant and the ejecta of the I caterpillars. For my part, I have seen so much of these

abominable beings that I have not for many years ventured to

touch a ‘ summer-cabbage.’ I am not particularly fastidious,

but have not yet brought myself to appreciate boiled cater- [ pillars, and rather fancy that I never shall accept them as an

article of food.

It is quite impossible for the cook to extirpate them from the cabbage, no matter how conscientiously she may steep it in strong salt and water. Those caterpillars which are merely lurking between the leaves are dislodged easily enough, and often come tumbling out in such numbers that the cook is .persuaded that she has completely ejected them. But, deep ’ivithm the heart of the cabbage, sorely grieved indeed by the salt, but too deeply buried to make their escape, are sundry of Bie largest and best-fed caterpillars, which are eventually

oiled with the cabbage, and mostly eaten ignorantly by those ^ vegetable. During life they are darker than the bright green of the leaf, but the boiling water reduces leaf , and caterpillar to a very similar distingmsh the hue, and it is not easy to one from the other.

The colour of the upper wings of this Moth is dark grevishrown, mottled variously with darker brown and grev. The ower wings are paler brown, with a smoky or blackish tint.

caterpillar is exceedingly variable in its colours, but is generally olive- brown above and yellow below, and on the hack 1-1 mark in which are two white dots. Sometimes the body is pale dusky-green above and below. When full-fed it descends to the earth, Lkes f s a low burrow in it, and changes to a smooth brown

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