INSECT VAIUETY. 55 



brushwood-flying yellow-brown moths^ nicknamed '' Fan Feet/' 

 tlie male carries a pair of fans on each foreleg; one is inserted at 

 the lower end of the tibia^ and the second beneath the first 

 tarsal joint. 



As regards the derivation of the scent, it may be remarked of 

 Heterocera generally, that in those kinds where the secretion 

 smacks of turpentine, either the moth frequents deal boards, 

 as the root-feeding Dark Arches, or its caterpillar feeds on 

 fir needles, as the Tawny-barred Angle. Then if we regard the 

 scent organs as a distinctive masculine feature, it is manifest 

 they should act as an allurement to the female when the male is 

 on the quest ; and once when some Wave Moths were gathering 

 in the silence of a Perthshire gulley around their wan consorts, 

 sitting on the fringe of blaebei'ry bushes, I noticed against the 

 last streaks of twilight that these beaux kept their fans extended. 

 In like manner the ardent fashion in which the male butterfly or 

 moth runs over his partner with his snuffing antennse is an 

 inducement to consider perfumes to be a charm in a new-born 

 female, who would probably be heightened in esteem by having a 

 stronger fragrance than flower-dust gathered among the grass tops. 



Maternal care in insects superficially resembles what we 

 observe in birds, but the various traits of nidification, brooding, 

 and attending the young, are commonly united in the same 

 species. Nor do insects, as a rule, indulge in monogamy, and 

 coo and bill in pairs. The females oviposite, and directly or 

 indirectly provide for an offspring in most cases posthumous. 

 When the sustenance of the species is identical throughout life, 

 as in the case of many crickets, bugs, and beetles, this need 

 involve no anomaly : the female simply lays on or near her 

 food ; but where the perfect insect lives by suction, and its 

 larva by mastication, as in the instance of bees, butterflies, 

 and flies, this harmony rarely exists : the food has then to be 

 sought by the pregnant female, who displays for a time the 

 instinct of its larva and revisits its former haunts, a circum- 

 stance often involving nest-making and other phenomena we are 

 accustomed to witness in the pupal metamorphosis. In the 

 bee tribe, which forms a passage between the two groups, we 

 witness a most marvellous example of this. 



In placing their eggs some insects are manifestly guided by 



