THE OAK EGGAR 211 



Truly a strange result ! The moths collected where 

 there was apparently nothing to attract them, and 

 remained there, unpersuaded by the sense of sight ; 

 they passed the bell-glass actually containing the female 

 without halting for a moment, although she must have 

 been seen by many of the moths both going and coming. 

 Maddened by a lure, they paid no attention to the 

 reality. 



What was the lure that so deceived them ? All the 

 preceding night and all the morning the female had 

 remained under the wire-gauze cover ; sometimes cling- 

 ing to the wirework, sometimes resting on the sand 

 in the tray. Whatever she touched — above all, ap- 

 parently, with her distended abdomen — was impreg- 

 nated, as a result of long contact, with a certain 

 emanation. This was her lure, her love-philtre ; this 

 it was that revolutionised the Oak-Eggar world. The 

 sand retained it for some time and diffused the effluvium 

 in turn. 



They passed by the glass prison in which the female 

 was then confined and hastened to the meshes of wire 

 and the sand on which the magic philtre had been 

 poured ; they crowded round the deserted chamber where 

 nothing of the magician remained but the odorous testi- 

 mony of her sojourn. 



The irresistible philtre requires time for its elabora- 

 tion. I conceive of it as an exhalation which is given 

 off during courtship and gradually saturates whatever is 

 in contact with the motionless body of the female. If 

 the bell-glass was placed directly on the table, or, still 

 better, on a square of glass, the communication between 

 the inside and the outside was insufficient, and the 



