14 DONALDSON BODINE. 



six males flew into the laboratory and were captured. In all the 

 cases I observed sight ap])eared to be of little use. The Avhole ap- 

 proach was made in a more or less indefinite manner, as if they were 

 guided by the varying strength of the scent, and, even v/hen the fe- 

 males were close to them and in ])lain sight, the males would still fly 

 blindly about striking the sides of the building, and at last reaching 

 the cage only after many wide detours. Dr. Westcott describes, in 

 the " Entomological News" for JNIay, 1895, his experience with Ce- 

 cropias. In four days he took 342 males who came to a cage where 

 females were confined. At one time he counted 218 about the cage 

 at the same time, when it contained only four females. 



Males of Samia ceeropia have been known to anticipate the emer- 

 gence of the female from the cocoon. In many forms where the 

 female has lost her wings, or possesses them in a very rudimentary 

 condition, she does not fly at all, or does so only to seek a place 

 for depositing her eggs. As many as 183 species have been enumer- 

 ated where the wings of the females are either greatly reduced or 

 entirely absent. In these cases the males must seek the females, and 

 observations show that they succeed in doing so in a wonderfully 

 short space of time. These are certainly i*emarkable manifestations 

 of some sense of pei'ception, which, in many respects, must resemble 

 our sense of smell. That the sense here concerned is not in any 

 direct way connected with that of touch or with the sympathetic 

 vibration of sense-hairs or organs, is proved by the example quoted 

 above where the males were attracted to a bag from which the fe- 

 males had been removed for some time. The fact that " assembling" 

 takes place among moths which have filiform antennre also argues 

 against the view that the pectinate forms by the vibration of their 

 abundant hairs communicate at a distance. 



There are many reasons why the pits and rods of the antennse 

 should be regarded as the peripheral organs of this sense. Histo- 

 logically, there is much evidence in favor of the view. There is a 

 supporting tissue with a perforated end, which would allow free 

 communication between the air and the nerve or a thin protecting 

 membrane, through which the perception may take place. The 

 origin of the anteniial nerve also presents some evidence that the 

 sense of smell resides in the antennse. Viallanes* says the antennal 



* Etudes histologique et orgauologiqiic sur les centres nei'veux et les Orjianes 

 des Sens des Aniniaux articules. Ann. de Sci. Nat. Zoologie, Huitieme Serie, T. 

 14. Paris, 1893. Ff. 405-45G. 



