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VII. The First Night's "Sugaring" in England.—A
Reminiscence of Epping Forest in 1843.
By James English.
[Read April 30th, 1881.]
In drawing up this little sketch of my first night's
"sugaring" for attracting moths, I wish to state that I do
not claim for myself any merit as the discoverer of this mode
of collecting insects. The late Henry Doubleday, of Epping,
had observed the fact that moths were attracted to empty
sugar hogsheads that had been turned out of the warehouse.
I had also noticed the same circumstance. The moths
(which were usually of the most common species) came only
in small numbers, and chiefly during the autumnal and
rainy seasons; in the summer months the Bees in one fine
day would clear out every vestige of sugar remaining in the
casks, Although this fact was known to Henry Doubleday,
the idea was never utilised by him for the capture of insects
apart from the hogsheads. It was certainly myself who first
applied "sugar" practically as a valuable adjunct to the net
and lanthorn in the search for Lepidoptera. This experiment
was made in the summer of 1843. Henry Doubleday was on
his tour in France at the time. Previous to that year the
only means used to capture Noctua was by the use of the old-
fashioned clap-net, at the forest-side, hedgerow, or flowery
meadow, where our little fluffy friends winged their way like
fairy sprites as the evening softly fell, and the twilight
deepened into night. But to net them was a difficult task,
and our captures were often very meagre. Besides which
the condition of the specimens was by no means good, and often
before we could get them safely out of our gigantic nets the
delicate beauty of the insects had vanished, the loosely
attached scales being rubbed off against the rough leno.
We had then no "cyanide bottles" to lull them gently into