210 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



That I did not do so was due to a fortuitous obser- 

 vation. Chance often has a surprise in store which 

 sets us on the right road when we have been seeking 

 it in vain. 



One afternoon, while trying to determine whether 

 sight plays any part in the search for the female once 

 the males had entered the room, I placed the female 

 in a bell-glass and gave her a slender twig of oak 

 with withered leaves as a support. The glass was set 

 upon a table facing the open window. Upon enter- 

 ing the room the moths could not fail to see the 

 prisoner, as she stood directly in the way. The tray, 

 containing a layer of sand, on which the female had 

 passed the preceding day and night, covered with a 

 wire-gauze dish-cover, was in my way. Without pre- 

 meditation I placed it at the other end of the room 

 on the floor, in a corner where there was but little 

 light. It was a dozen yards away from the window. 



The result of these preparations entirely upset my 

 preconceived ideas. None of the arrivals stopped at 

 the bell-glass, where the female was plainly to be seen, 

 the light falling full upon her prison. Not a glance, 

 not an inquiry. They all flew to the further end of 

 the room, into the dark corner where I had placed 

 the tray and the empty dish-cover. 



They alighted on the wire dome, explored it per- 

 sistently, beating their wings and jostling one another. 

 All the afternoon, until sunset, the moths danced about 

 the empty cage the same saraband that the actual 

 presence of the female had previously evoked. Finally 

 they departed : not all, for there were some that would 

 not go, held by some magical attractive force. 



