174 AROl^IATIC BUTTERFLIES 



deal of incredulity, and rightly, because the wing 

 of an insect was looked upon, at least after the 

 butterfly had flown awhile, as an almost com- 

 pletely dead organ. But the fact that any one may 

 experiment with our own butterflies, and in several 

 cases prove to himself the exact location of an 

 odor, removes in the first instance any possible 

 doubt as to its origin ; and Weismann, in defend- 

 ing Miiller, has clearly shown that there is a liv- 

 ing: tissue in the wino's of butterflies which would 

 allow of the production of an odor through local 

 active scent glands. 



It seems, therefore, to be clearly proved that 

 very many butterflies emit odors either of an 

 agreeable or of a disagreeable nature, and that 

 those which are pleasing to us are in large measure 

 confined to the male sex, and are emitted through 

 microscopic canals which course through micro- 

 scopic scales to microscopic glands at their base 

 within the wing membranes. Now it is quite 

 plain that, since these insects emit odors, they 

 must also be able to perceive them. That this 

 is the case has always been known to be true of 

 moths, since the males of certain species, especially 

 among the Bombycidae, will of an evening enter in 

 great nmnbers an open room within which a female 



