332 



PSrCHE. 



[March— April 1S90, 



shown was when the antennae were ex- 

 tended as if alert. Then my presence 

 near at hand or my passing would be 

 recognized by a rocking or bowing mo- 

 tion of all the wings in ^common, pro- 

 duced, apparently, by the action of the 

 middle legs in lowering and raising the 

 body upon the pivot formed by the in- 

 sertion of the hind legs ; the tips of the 

 wings moved slowly forward and back- 

 ward, the forward motion more abrupt 

 than the backwai'd, over an arc of not 

 more than a quarter of a centimetre ; the 

 motion w^as accompanied by no percep- 

 tible sound. 



On the 5th, a bright, warm day, the 

 butterfly had turned back to the win- 

 dow at about noon, and my appearance 

 led to some fluttering against the pane. 

 As T remained motionless, it gained 

 heart, walked about the broad ledge be- 

 neath the window with open wings and 

 antennae spread at right angles, with 

 every few steps depressing them like 

 stifle sticks till they touched the ground, 

 beating time, as it were, with its march, 

 and, finally, took up its position on the 

 ledge, and turning its back to the sun, 

 expanded its wings fully, even depres- 

 ing them so that the tips touched the 

 surface of rest ; the antennae retained 

 the aleit position of the day before. 



Wishing to see what would happen I 

 moved from my position directly oppo- 

 site the window, my head about three 

 feet away, toward the butterfly, but as 

 slowly as possible. No eflect was pro- 

 duced until my eyes wei'e within a foot 

 of the butterfly facing me, when its 

 wings shut with a snap and then began 

 to vibrate ; the tips of the wings ap- 

 peared to have a lateral vibration of not 

 more, probably considerably less, than 

 a couple of millimetres, while the an- 

 tennae vibrated forward and backward 

 as much as laterally, and not over a 

 millimetre. I could perceive no sound 

 whatever. I slowly turned my head to 

 bring my ear opposite, but could still 

 detect nothing. On endeavoring to 

 bring my ear still nearer by the quietest 

 possible approach, the butterfly flew 

 again to the window and fluttered about. 

 Subsequently, I got within six inches 

 and could then distinctly hear a rustle 

 like the flapping of the wings. of an in- 

 sect against a window pane at a dis- 

 tance, and could see that there was not 

 the slightest motion of the fore wing on 

 the hind. It afterwards partook so 

 greedily of some half-rotten apple of- 

 fered it that it permitted me to hustle 

 it about with my finger without ap- 

 parent fright. 



Palaearctic Lepidoptera. — The cele- 

 brated collection of Palaearctic Lepidop- 

 tera made by the late Professor Heinrich 

 Frey, of Zurich, is offered for sale. 



The collection consists of 4404 species and 

 15,600 specimens, all in excellent condition. 

 It occupies loo corked and glass-covered 

 drawers, contained in three cabinets. The 



collection will always have a high scientific 

 value as it contains the types of all the new 

 microlepidoptera described by Professor 

 Frey. There are about 80 of these of which 

 about ^o are U)iique. 



For further information apply to Dr. Max 

 Staxdflss, Museum des Polytechnicum, 

 Zurich, Switzerland. 



