116 HEREDITY AND SEX 



The evidence that the Peckhams have given, even if 

 taken to mean that the motions of the male attract 

 the attention of the female, — and I can see no reason 

 why this may not be the case, ^ fails nevertheless to show 

 that the female selects, when she has a chance, the more 

 highly colored male. 



Mayer, and Mayer and Soule have made many ex- 

 periments with moths. The moth promethea, Callo- 



WW 



Fig. 60. — Above, Callosamia promethia, male to left, female to right. 

 Below Porthetria dispar, male to left, female to right. 



samia promethea, is distinctly sexually dimorphic, as 

 shown in Fig. 60. Mayer's experiments show that the 

 male finds the female entirely by the sense of smell. 

 The wings of some 300 males were painted with scarlet 

 or green. They mated as often as did the normal male 

 with which they competed. 



Where the wings of males were stuck on the female 

 in place of her own wings, no disturbance in the mating 

 was observed. Conversely, normal females accepted 



