Grain and Chaff from an English ManorSavory, Arthur Herbert
History
Grain and Chaff from an English Manor
Savory, Arthur Herbert
Aldington (Worcestershire, England); Country life -- England; England -- Social life and customs
Later in the summer the Ghost Swift appeared about twilight, the white
colour of the male making it very conspicuous. Twilight at Aldington
is called "owl light," and moths of all kinds are "bob-owlets," from
their uneven flight when trying to evade the owls in pursuit. We often
see these birds "hawking" at nightfall in my meadows round the edge of
the Forest after moths.
The martagon lily flourished in the Aldington garden, and when they
were blooming the overpowering scent was particularly attractive to
moths of the _Plusia_ genus, including the Burnished Brass, the Golden
Y, and the Beautiful Golden Y, all exhibiting very distinctive
markings of burnished gold; and other _Noctuæ_ in great variety. The
latter are best taken by "sugaring"--painting patches of mixed beer
and sugar on a series of tree trunks, and making several rounds at
twilight with a lantern and a cyanide bottle. We had a sugaring range
of about seventy pollard withies by the brook side, and being well
sheltered, it was such a favourite place for moths, that it was often
difficult to select from each patch, swarming with sixty or seventy
specimens, those really worth taking. At sugaring moths are found in a
locality where they are never seen at other times, and rarities occur
quite unexpectedly. I took some specimens of _Cymatophora ocularis_
(figure of 80). Newman says: "It is always esteemed a rarity," and
mentions Worcester as a locality. _Mamestra abjecta_ was quite a
common catch, of which Newman writes:
"It seems to be very local, and so imperfectly known that
the recorded habitats must be received with great doubt; it
is certainly abundant on the banks of the Thames, near
Gravesend, and also on the Irish coast, near Waterford."
The marks of sugaring remain on tree trunks for many years. I lately
saw the faint remains on about sixty trees in Set Thorns plantation,
in the Forest, which a friend and I painted on nearly forty years ago.
This friend was fortunate in capturing the black variety of the White
Admiral, in which the white markings are entirely absent on the upper
side; and, thirty years later, his son took another near Burley. The
son also caught a Camberwell Beauty on one of his sugared patches in
the day-time. I believe this to be the only recorded instance of the
occurrence of this rare and beautiful insect in the Forest.
The Hornet Clearwing (_Sesia Apiformis_) is a very interesting moth,
and it was common at Aldington; the larva feeds on the wood of the
black poplar. The colouring of the moth so resembles the hornet, that
at first sight it is easily mistaken for the latter. It is an
excellent example of "mimicry," whereby a harmless insect acquires the
distinctive appearance of a harmful one, and so secures immunity from
the attacks of its natural enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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