282 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



Object. — To ascertain if a male which is very young 

 and has just left off mating will again mate with a young 

 unfertilized female. 



Behavior. — 9:45. When placed in one cage, both fluttei- about wildly 

 for fully five minutes. Then the female clings to the wire netting at the 

 top of the cage and, excepting for an occasional movement of the 

 wings, remains perfectly quiet, while the male circles about her, flap- 

 ping the wings wildly and often falling to the floor, but quickly 

 scrambling again to the top where the female is stationed. Often he 

 touches her abdomen with his legs and brushes her body with his, 

 and sometimes he nestles along side so that the wings and bodies 

 touch. To all of this the female is coldly indifferent. These maneuvers 

 have continued for six minutes. At 9:51 both settle down, the male 

 clinging to the wires two inches from the female. — 1:30. All continues 

 auiet. — Morning. The pair are found in copulo. 



This shows that a male may mate the second time 

 with a virgin female when both are comparatively young. 

 The male which had already been in copulo showed much 

 eagerness to mate ; the female showed little or no eager- 

 ness. Perhaps the mated male had lost attraction for 

 her, or more likely the female was incapable of sexual 

 excitement at so early an age. In other experiments 

 however we have seen activity in the female at the same 

 age or even younger. 



Experiment 8.— April 29, 9 :30 P. M. 



9 25. Age 1 day 4:30 hours. Already fertilized. 



S 5. Age 7 days 9:00 hours. 



c^Sl. Age days 11:29 hours. Introduced at 10:24 p. m. 



Object. — To ascertain if a fertilized female can be 

 tempted into mating a second time, and, if so, which male 

 will be preferred^ the one a half day old or the one almost 

 seven days of age. 



Behavior.— 10:24. Since 9:30 female 25 and male 5 have been 

 together in the cage but neither has yet displayed any inclination to 

 mate. Male 31 is now introduced. He immediately flutters up to the 

 female, which is clinging to the top of the cage, quietly takes his 

 position at some three inches distance, and makes no more ado. The 

 old male 5, resting on the floor, now gently moves the wings for about 

 two minutes, and then for a half minute flutters wildly about the cage. 

 This is followed by male 31 fluttering the. wings, while clinging to the 



