374 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The butterflies, as fast as they made their appearance, were 

 killed and pinned up ; the males arranged on one side, the 

 females on the other: a most brilliant display, covering a 

 much larger space than one would be apt to imagine. 



It would seem, then, as the result of the whole experiment, 

 that sex is not determined in the egg of insects, and that the 

 female requires more nourishment than the male. Nor does 

 this appear strange, when we consider the reproductive 

 nature of the female. It has frequently been said to me: — 

 " If your theory is true, it makes the female higher in the 

 scale — superior to the male." I believe it has always been 

 admitted that the female gives birth to the young. If this is 

 considered superiority, then the female is superior; but if 

 beauty of form and colour is taken into account, then the 

 male insect is superior; the same as with birds and the 

 higher animals. Carry the analogy further, — up to human 

 beings, — and still we find the principle holds good. To 

 which sex belong all our great inventors, statesmen, and 

 philosophers ? I believe woman is physically incapable, 

 other things being equal, of becoming as profound a 

 philosopher, as deep a thinker, as man. I do not wish it 

 understood that I deem woman inferior to man ; there is no 

 inferiority, no superiority. If this matter were better appre- 

 ciated, we should hear less of "woman's rights," and equality 

 of the sexes, and woman would quietly take her place by the 

 side of her brother, with no contention for rights. 



But to return to some corroborations. Toward the last of 

 May some twenty half-grown larvae of Vanessa Antiopa were 

 brought to me. I placed the branch on which they were 

 feeding in a jar of water, turning a wooden box over them, 

 and thought no more of them for over a week, when I 

 uncovered them, and found the branch had fallen from the 

 jar, and the leaves were so dry 1 could powder them in my 

 hand. More than half of the larvae were dead; eight poor, 

 starved-looking specin)ens were alive, and completed their 

 transformations. With this butterfly it is diflBcult to distin- 

 guish the sex by the marking on the wings, so I dissected 

 them, and the result proved them males. 



Again, I found a larva, new to me, feeding on the soft 

 maple. I obtained thirty-three good specimens. I was very 

 anxious to rear these, so I watched them closely, and plied 



