Breeding Habits of Callosamia promethea. 



Daring the spring of 1876, I carefully observed many speci- 

 mens of 0. promethea, confined in boxes, with the hope of 

 gaining some clue to the singular attracting power possessed by 

 the females. The results were of the most unsatisfactory na- 

 ture. Males confined in the same box with females seemed to 

 be entirely unconscious of their presence, crawling over their 

 wings, and fluttering around the box in evident bewilderment. 

 At the same time, twenty or thirty males were collected just 

 outside the window, attracted from great distances by the same 

 females. Neither confinement nor fright prevented copulation, 

 for when a male accidentally alighted on the body of a female, 

 copulation took place, and a pair would copulate if held together 

 in the fingers. 



Only one observation of importance was made. The newly 

 hatched female, during the first two or three afternoons, pro- 

 trudes from the end of her abdomen the organ which subse- 

 quently answers the purpose of an ovipositor. At this time its 

 delicate walls are distended by a transparent fluid, and it has 

 the appearance of an irregularly conical sack about five or six 

 mm. long. At intervals it is withdrawn and again protruded. 

 The slightest jar or touch causes its withdrawal for several 

 minutes. It is only protruded during those hours of the day 

 when the males are active. 



In the April numero of the American Naturalist for 1877, 

 Mr. L. Trouvelot gives the details of experiments which prove 

 that the males of C. promethea, deprived of their antennae, are 

 incapable of fertilizing the female, although apparently not in 

 the least crippled by the amputation. This feet, with the one 

 previously mentioned, served as a guide for further observations. 



If a female, with ovipositor distended, be placed in a room 

 with an open window through which there is no draught of air, 

 although there is a slight breeze out of doors, the males will 

 collect in great numbers, flying about the window, or even into 

 it and about the room, but being unable to find the female, 

 though passing close to her. The conditions are the same as 

 when the insects are confined in boxes. Now if she is suspended 



