The Life of the Caterpillar 



way of a lid. This is enough to keep the 

 neighbourhood in ignorance of the secrets of 

 my laboratory. No male puts in an appear- 

 ance. 



On the other hand, make use of ill-closed, 

 cracked boxes, or even hide them in a drawer, 

 in a cupboard; and, notwithstanding this 

 added mystery, the Moths will arrive in num- 

 bers as great as when they come thronging 

 to the trellised cage standing in full view on 

 a table. I have retained a vivid recollection 

 of an evening when the recluse was waiting 

 in a hat-box at the bottom of a closed wall- 

 cupboard. The Moths arrived, went to the 

 door, struck it with their wings, knocked at 

 it to express their wish to enter. Passing way- 

 farers, coming no one knows whence across 

 the fields, they well knew what was inside 

 there, behind those boards. 



We must therefore reject the idea of any 

 means of information similar to that of wire- 

 less telegraphy, for the first screen set up, 

 whether a good conductor or a bad, stops the 

 female's signals completely. To give these a 

 free passage and carry them to a distance, one 

 condition is indispensable : the receptacle in 

 which the female is contained must be imper- 



270 



