NOTES ON "assembling.*' 387 



faculty beyond doubt ; and, as the air inhaled is the carrying 

 medium, we must look to the spiracles as the organs of smell. 

 In some moths, especially Bombyces and Noctuas, the sense is 

 extraordinarily developed. For instance, " sugar" can be found 

 by the " owl-moths " in the darkest nights. Geometers fly more 

 in the dusk ; the flight of butterflies is by day. Neither are 

 therefore conspicuous at sugar. And, if we except species such 

 as Ampludasys strataria {prodromaria) , geometers agree with 

 butterflies in having the sense of smell less developed than, for 

 example, Bombyces. There is nothing extraordinary in this ; it 

 is a provision in Nature with which we are familiar. For 

 instance, the greyhound courses by sight; the foxhound by 

 scent. Let us now apply these observations to what is termed 

 " assembling." 



When I met Mr. Murray, of Carnforth, last July, he told me he 

 had put three Bomhijx qtiercus (females), each confined in a small 

 cage of perforated zinc, into the leather satchel he usually 

 carries when on entomological expeditions. This was on July 

 19th. In the afternoon of the same day "assembling" was tried 

 on Witherslack Moss. It was late, about five o'clock, a dull 

 day, and, as we afterwards found, few males of the species were 

 out of the chrysalis. Two, however, were attracted and captured. 

 On the morning of the 20th Mr, Murray removed the females 

 from the satchel, and took the satchel with him to the Isle 

 of Man. He returned from the island on the 23rd. On the 

 24th he again visited Witherslack Moss, and, although no 

 B. quercus had been in or near the satchel since the 20th, 

 numbers of males not only came to it but crept inside. The 

 26th was the date of our visit to Clougha Pike (Entom., ante 

 303), and Mr. Murray then acquainted me with these particulars. 

 His experience was thoroughly corroborated on the occasion 

 of our visit to the Pike ; but tlie species there was nearly over ; 

 the males were rubbed, chipped, experienced, and shy. On the 

 27th we all went to "Witherslack Moss, and it was a sight to see 

 the males of B. quercus, all in good condition, trooping up 

 against the breeze to the satchel. Again, on the 29th, two fine 

 males came to it, on the high road, by Halton Moss. I took the 

 first — no difficult matter, as satchel and moth were within arm's 

 reach. The second we watched running about and into the bag 

 as we sat at lunch by the well, until we finally chased it away. 

 Lastly, males assembled to the satchel, in a similar manner, on 

 the 31st. Summing up then, — three female B. quercus, each in a 

 cage of perforated zinc, were placed in a leather bag on July 

 19th. On the 20th they were taken out. The bag had a sea 

 trip, but males continued to assemble to it for twelve days after- 

 wards ! Clearly this history proves two things : — That Lepi- 

 doptera possess the sense of smell ; and that some species, at 

 any rate, depend on this sense in " assembling." They are the 



