February 1900.] 



PSYCHE. 



17 



clear glass. Assuming that the males 

 are ahle to see throi gli glass which 

 appears transparent to us, we may 

 conclude that sight alone is not suffi- 

 cient to attract the male toward the 

 female, or even so retain him in her 

 presence when he is within a few inches 

 of her. 



Another experiment which seems to 

 show that the male depends solely upon 

 scent and not at all upon sight in seek- 

 ing out the female, may be performed as 

 follows : A female is wrapped in 

 loose raw cotton so as to be invisil>le, 

 and yet allow some scent to emanate 

 from her. The males then fly to the 

 cotton and crawl over it, fluttering their 

 wings excitedly, and grasping the cot- 

 ton repeatedh' with their abtlominal 

 claspeis. 



In another series of experiments the 

 females were inclosed within a wooden 

 box having a paper chimney arising 

 from one end, and the other end being 

 open and covered with mosquito net- 

 ting. This box was so arranged that 

 a current of air blew in through the 

 open end, and out of the paper chim- 

 ney. The females within were invisi- 

 ble from the outside, and yet any scent 

 arising from them would be carried up 

 through the chimney into the outer air. 

 When the males were liberated they 

 flew to the mouth of the chimney' and 

 fluttered aljout in its neighborhood. 

 None came to the large open end of 

 the box into which the air was blow- 

 ing. I then poured some CS, in a 

 large flat evaporating dish and placed it 

 near the open end of the box in such a 



manner that the fumes passed up the 

 chimney and mingled with the scent 

 from the female moths. The males, 

 however, paid no attention to the 

 new odor and still remained fluttering 

 around the chimney ; nor did they 

 seem to be distracted liy the fumes of 

 ethyl mercaptan which possesses a 

 most nauseating and putrid odor. Evi- 

 dently the scent which arises from the 

 female is sufticient to overcome the 

 fumes of CS, or ethjd mercaptan, if 

 indeed the males have any perception 

 of the latter otlors. 



The entire abdomens of five females 

 were cut ofl' and placed upon a table, 

 while the males were placed within a 

 large mosquito-net cage about five feet 

 away. Two males were liberated 

 within five minutes of the time when 

 the abdomens were cut ofl". They 

 both flew to the recently severed abdo- 

 mens and paid no attention to the abilo- 

 men-less females in the cage. I 

 repeated this experiment many times 

 but in all subsequent trials the males 

 paid no attention either to the severed 

 abdomens or to the mutilated females. 

 As far as positive results go, however, 

 it appears that the scent which attracts 

 the male emanates from the abdomen of 

 the female. 



When the eggs are cut out from the 

 female she no longer attracts males, nor 

 do the males pay any attention to the 

 detached eggs. Dead or dying females 

 never attract males, nor do they come 

 to the empt}' cocoon from which a 

 female has issued. 



\4'hen a female has remained for 



