194 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



youngest were ready to resume their nocturnal ex- 

 peditions a second and even a third time. Where did 

 they first go, these veterans of a day ? 



They knew precisely where the cage had been the 

 night before. One would have expected them to return 

 to it, guided by memory ; and that not finding it they 

 would go out to continue their search elsewhere. No; 

 contrary to my expectation, nothing of the kind appeared. 

 None came to the spot which had been so crowded the 

 night before ; none paid even a passing visit. The 

 room was recognised as an empty room, with no previous 

 examination, such as would apparently be necessary to 

 contradict the memory of the place. A more positive 

 guide than memory called them elsewhere. 



Hitherto the female was always visible, behind the 

 meshes of the wire-gauze cover. The visitors, seeing 

 plainly in the dark night, must have been able to see 

 her by the vague luminosity of what for us is the dark. 

 What would happen if I imprisoned her in an opaque 

 receptacle ? Would not such a receptacle arrest or 

 set free the informing effluvia according to its nature ? 



Practical physics has given us wireless telegraphy by 

 means of the Hertzian vibrations of the ether. Had the 

 Great Peacock butterfly outstripped and anticipated 

 mankind in this direction ? In order to disturb the 

 whole surrounding neighbourhood, to warn pretenders at 

 a distance of a mile or more, does the newly emerged 

 female make use of electric or magnetic waves, known or 

 unknown, that a screen of one material would arrest 

 while another would allow them to pass ? In a word, 

 does she, after her fashion, employ a system of wireless 

 telegraphy ? I see nothing impossible in this ; insects 

 are responsible for many inventions equally marvellous. 



