144 PHIL RAU 



the male came dancing by on the wing. As he approached and 

 fluttered above her she promptly assumed the strange position 

 described above, the wings spread flat and directed slightly 

 backward, and the abdomen upraised. In each case they flirted 

 until the excitement became riotous and then they fluttered 

 away and must have separated, for they were lost among the 

 many others in the field. I have never seen the accomplishing 

 of actual mating, but in the several pairs observed already in 

 copulo they rested tail-to-tail. When disturbed they would fly 

 thus, in pairs. One pair continued flight for two and one-half 

 minutes without alighting. The leader (sex not ascertained) did 

 all the flying and seemed merely to carry the rear one. 



On one occasion the pair continued their coquetry for fifteen 

 minutes, with several attempts at mating. During this period 

 the female moved from flower to flower, not with an air of trying 

 to escape, but rather leading him on; the male persistently fol- 

 lowed her, constantly on the wing and in a state of high agitation. 

 Finally he knocked her to the ground, where he followed her 

 still, and fell beside her, but he seemed exhausted and did not 

 try to mate, but lay as if spent. The female, when she found she 

 had exhausted him, arose on the wing and flew lightly and 

 indifferently away. 



A pair in copulo were quietly at rest on a low shrub. I picked 

 them up in the fingers for examination and soon replaced them, 

 but after such disturbance they separated and went flying and 

 fluttering about each other, over the clay bank, over the stream, 

 over the low plants for about seven minutes, when they settled 

 for an instant and I thought they would reunite. But the female 

 dropped several inches to a lower stratum of leaves, remained 

 there for a few seconds and then darted away. I expected the 

 male to go in hot pursuit; instead, for the next ten minutes, 

 while the female was dancing over some shrubs a hundred yards 

 away this male was frantically going in and out among the 

 leaves in the spot on the lower stratum where the female had 

 paused for a few seconds. It was pathetic to see his eager search ; 

 the only spot that seemed to have an attraction for him was 

 the place where the female had been, even though he had not 

 seen her drop to it, but had only located the spot after she had 

 left it. As the male hunted frantically about her former loca- 

 tion, while the female was dancing in full view, I could not 

 help but feel convinced that in this case at least the sense of 

 sight was inferior to the sense of smell. 



