272 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



No. XXXI.— SEXUAL ATTRACTION IN LEPIDOPTERA. 



Some interesting notes on the above have appeared on pp.511 and 923 of 

 Vol. XVIII of the Journal. The following extract from a recently published 

 book " Cornish Characters and Strange Events," by S. Baring Gould, M.A.. 

 which also bears on the subject, may therefore be of interest. The character 

 being dealt with in the part of the book from which the extract is taken, is 

 that of Mr. George Carter Bignell, born in Exeter in 1826, but residing (for 

 he is still alive) at Saltash in Cornwall for the past fifty years, more or less. 

 Mr. Bignell may be said to be a born naturalist, but those who wish to read 

 more of his interesting career are referred to Mr. Baring Gould's book. The 

 extract is a story told in Mr. Bignell's own words as follows ; — 



" I once had a virgin female of the Oak-egger moth and was desirous of 

 getting some males. I started off with the lady in a tin box, with a perforated 

 zinc top to give her air and allow her perfume to escape. I walked through 

 the fields towards Mill-house to where was a turnstile, and at this spot lighted 

 on a weary policeman resting. As it was a dull day, without any token of the 

 sun breaking out to attract butterflies for their usual gambols, the policeman 

 jeeringly remarked that I had missed the right day. I replied that I thought 

 not, and that I could collect as many as I desired, in fact that I could make 

 them come to me. He laughed incredulously. I then took out mj' tin box 

 and placed it on the wall, and magician-like, whistled and waved my hand. The 

 policeman stared and thought I was befooling him. But lo ! in two or three 

 minutes one male alighted close to the box, soon followed by others, and in 

 a quarter of an hour I had at least fifty, and so tame that I picked them up 

 with my fingers and distributed them among about a dozen people who had 

 gathered to see what I was about. The policeman stared with open eyes and 

 mouth, quite satisfied that my whistle and mysterious signs in the air with 

 my hand had called the insects to me. Satisfied with what I had got I waved 

 again and bade the moths depart, and clapped the box in my pocket. Next day 

 I took the empty box out with me into the country. I had several males 

 following me, and some actually penetrated into my pocket where was the 

 empty box, proving that the perfume still remained in it, though wholly 

 imperceptible to myself." 



The author prefaces the above story by stating that all moths with highly 

 pectinated antennse, that is to say wath their feelers comb-like at the extremities, 

 have the most extraordinary power of scenting a female moth at a great 

 distance, even two or three miles with a favourable wind. 



G. P. MILLETT, 



Conservator of Forests, N.-C. 



Bombay, 

 18«/i January 1909. 



