VOL.f4) = Pleocoma Behrensiz. 25 
other sex. He is a good flyer, and possesses the secret of finding 
the retreat of the female, though she be hidden beneath the earth 
beyond the penetration of eyesight. 
Last season while in search of specimens of this species, I saw 
male example coming towards me, and when about a yard off he 
altered the direction of his course by swerving and then circling 
around me, and finally dropping to the ground, where, he immedi- 
ately commenced burrowing, and in a very short time, perhaps 
about a minute, was buried out of sight. I at once suspected that 
he had traced out the abode of a female. I began excavating the 
ground where the beetle entered, and in a short time exhumed both 
male and female, they having become companions at a depth of 
six inches; proving conclusively that the male is endowed with the 
power of finding the female, though she be hidden from view. The 
female most probably had not long entered the earth, or it may be 
the habit to remain near the surface in order to be more surely found 
by the male. However this may be, the depth at which pupation 
takes place is two feet or more, and it takes place in an earthern 
cell compactly constructed and cemented together, so as to retain 
its shape after removal. _ 
The observations upon the movements of the male make it evi- 
dent that he searches for the other sex by scent; and a correlative 
fact is, that at the time he circled around me, he had been drawn 
on the line of scent of a female which was in a box in my coat 
pocket; for when I first saw him he was hovering about the place 
from which I had just before removed the female, and when he left 
that place his course was straight towards where I stood, making a 
turn around me, but coming in contact with a stronger wave of 
scent from another female, it led him into the ground as related 
above. : 
This is not a new principle of attraction between the sexes, for on 
the contrary it is the oldest known in the animal economy. The 
_ higher classes of animals possess it largely, and is a commonly ob- 
served power among the Articulata, but it is among the members 
of the group Bombycide among the Lepidoptera that this method 
of attraction has been mostly observed, and particularly among 
those species in which the wings are fully developed in both sexes, 
as well as among the other groups wherein the wing power of the 
male is ample, and the female completely apterous. But this case 
