SEXUAL ATTRACTION BY ODORS. 71 



about in front of the window. One after another of the passers-by 

 were arrested by the unusual spectacle of perhaps fifty of the large Pro- 

 methea moths, congregated in a small space and actuated, apparently, 

 by one common purpose. A crowd of persons, men, women and chil- 

 dren, had soon assembled before my Avindow, completely blocking up 

 tlie sidewalk, and eagerly asking, "what are they?" "where did they 

 all come from?" and, "what are they here for?" I left the window 

 with the questions unanswered, for I did not care to give the informa- 

 tion that they were Messrs. Promethea, drawn some of them from the 

 remotest portions of the city, to pay their devoirs to the Misses Pro- 

 methea, within my office. T trust that my reference to these sensorial 

 flights may not be deemed indelicate, for the amorous flutterings of 

 insect wings are but in obedience to a law of their nature, which lies 

 entirely outside of our code of morals, and is of equal, if not superior 

 authority.* 



Another confirmation that insects lip,ve the perception and apprecia- 

 tion of odors is found in a recent discovery of scent-producing organs 

 in the males of certain Lepidoptera, particularly among the moths. 

 These organs are pencils of hairs, associated with special structure, 

 located in different portions of insects, which emit, at certain times, 

 peculiar odors, resulting from some volatile oils, as is believed. In 

 some of the Sphingidce, according to Mr. A. H. Swinton,f they are 

 located at the base of the abdomen. In some of the genera of the 

 Noctuidm, as in Acronycta, Leucania, Maniestra, and Phlogophora, 

 they are hidden beneath the first five dorsal arcs of tlie abdominal seg- 

 ments. In other Noctuidm, as in Apamea, they are at the anus, while 

 in Catocala they are to be found in the legs — at the upper part of 

 the second pair of tibise. In the GeometridcB, they are on the posterior 



*See, also, in this connection, an interesting account given by Professor F. H. Snow, in 

 the IransacHoTis of the Kaiksas Academy of Science for 1874 [vol. iii], pp. 27, 28, of his ob- 

 servation upon Penikese Island, of the male of Polyphylla variolosa (a beetle closely allied 

 to the common May-bug, Laclinosterna fusca) digging in the barren soil of the island for 

 the female, when about to emerge from its pupation, while still buried beneath the surface. 

 He states : " My attention was first arrested bj' a male vigorously scratching the ground 

 with his feet while his antennae were fully extended with their antcnnal plates widely 

 separated. His progress being too slow to suit mj purpose, I assisted him in his excava- 

 tion, and at the depth of half an inch discovered a female, who, with head upward, was 

 struggling to reach the surface, having evidently but just emerged from the pupa. A little 

 further on another nia-le was busily scratching the soil, and another female was unearthed 

 directly underneath ; while a moment later two rival males were discovered digging for a 

 third female, who was buried nearly an inch below the surface." There can scarcely be a 

 doubt but that the knowledge of the subterranean presence of the females was conveyed, 

 not by the sense of hearing, as was supposed by Professor Snow, but through theantennal 

 organs of smell with which the male of the Lamellicornes is so abundantly provided (see 

 ante, page C9, in foot-note). 



\Proeeed. Loud. Entomolog. Soc. for 1878, p. 20. 



