THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 37 



of the prior appearance of male or female, by insects in 

 captivity, is of little or no value. I did imply, and still think, 

 that it is not at all satisfactory evidence, by reason of the ex- 

 tremely' different climatic and other inHiiences to which, in 

 nine cases out of ten, insects in a state of nature are exposed. 

 Nor does the fact of its being the only evidence we can 

 obtain (even if true) prove that it is at all reliable. Possibly 

 there is no such evidence at all at present, within our reach, 

 by which to decide the question. At the same time, granting 

 the comparative scarcity of the females of many species of 

 Lepidoptera and their congeners, I still think that the fact of 

 patient search for the females of such a species as Endromis 

 versicolor not being rewarded with success for a week or 

 more after the plentiful appearance of the males, and its 

 being then rewarded with tolerable certainty, and this not in 

 one particular season but in many, must go for something. 

 And I am sure that the observance of this and similar facts, 

 with respect not to this one species alone, but to many com- 

 moner and more easily obtained, has until now been ac- 

 cepted, amongst a large class of Entomologists, as ground 

 for the opinion (I do not say positive knowledge) that ordi- 

 narily the males appear first. I know this was the common 

 belief amongst the Brighton Entomologists when I lived 

 there, with respect to Colias Edusa, the males of which were 

 always most plentiful on the first appearance of the species, 

 and the females afterwards. I have noticed the same thing 

 at sugar in the cases of Noctua xanthographa, Agrotis Sege- 

 tum, A. exclamationis, and many other species, in some of 

 which the bold and common males entirely disappear, whilst 

 the females continue to come in great numbers and fine con- 

 dition. I cannot prove the point from these instances, it is 

 true ; but I can infer from the only evidence which Nature, 

 under her own conditions, affords. 1 do not undertake there- 

 fore to prove that the males of Endromis versicolor emerge 

 from the pupa first ; but on the other hand 1 defy Mr. 

 Greene, or his authority, to prove that the males they have 

 " seen flying wildly and rapidly hither and thilher" were in 

 all cases in search of the female, or that on their first appear- 

 ance there are any females for them to seek. I, too, have 

 never seen the female flying, and am inclined to believe that 

 she seldom or never exercises her beautiful pinions ; but by 



