Butterflies and Moths (British)Furneaux, William S.
Science
Butterflies and Moths (British)
Furneaux, William S.
Butterflies -- Great Britain; Moths -- Great Britain
In addition to this you must go out provided with your net, killing
bottle, and a number of pill boxes. Choose your night according to the
hints already given, and if you are on the look-out for any particular
species, be careful that the date of your outing is well timed, making
any necessary allowances for the forwardness or backwardness of the
season, for a moth that is generally due on a certain _average_ time of
the year may appear some weeks sooner if the preceding weeks have been
unusually warm, or its emergence may be delayed considerably by the
prevalence of cold east winds or a late frost.
Make up your mind as to the field of your operations before you start,
and if possible choose a route that will carry you through a variety of
situations, so that you may pass the favourite haunts of a number of
different species. Clearings in woods with an abundant undergrowth,
waste places with plenty of tall and rank vegetation, overgrown railway
banks, clover fields, the flowery borders of corn fields, plantations in
parks, heaths and moors, sheltered and overgrown hollows such as chalk
pits and old disused quarries, reed and marsh land, all these are good
localities, each one inhabited by its own peculiar species, and if your
route runs through a fair variety of such places you may, other things
being equally favourable, depend on a good catch.
See that your time also is well chosen. Of course you cannot say exactly
what the night will be till it actually comes, and, as you have to start
off before it is dark, you must consider the probabilities of the future
from the present condition of the air. Let it be a night when a bright
moon is not due, and if it follow a warm and moist day with a south or
south-west wind, or if drizzly, so much the better; but let your feet be
shod with boots that will permit you to wade through moist herbage
without danger, and take a waterproof if necessary.
It is always advisable to be on your hunting ground before twilight sets
in, as a number of moths venture out before the sun has disappeared; and
then you can work on till midnight if you feel inclined, or even extend
your labours till the early hours of the morning.
Before dusk you will meet with many of the little _Tortrices_ (page 298)
in sheltered spots, and a little later the _Geometrae_ and Hawks will be
on the wing. Thus, before dark, you may make good use of your net,
dealing with your captures just in the same way as recommended in the
case of butterflies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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