122 DARWINISM TO-DAY. 



tennse were covered with shellac, photographic paste, glue, 

 paraffin, etc., that the sense of smell is seated in the antennae. 

 Males with antennae covered with photographic paste did 

 not find females, while the same males with this paste dis- 

 solved off did. 



Mayer now tried to test the selective action of the female. 

 The male promethea has blackish wings while the females 

 are reddish-brown. In accordance with the theory of 

 sexual selection, the peculiar coloration of the male should 

 be due to the selection of dark-coloured males, so that 

 under this influence the males would become, in successive 

 generations, darker and darker until the present coloration 

 has been attained. Mayer's own account of his experi- 

 ments and conclusions to test the preferences and selective 

 action of the females is as follows : 



"In order to test this hypothesis I cut off the wings of a 

 number of females, leaving only short stumps, from which 

 all the scales were carefully brushed. Male wings were 

 then neatly glued to the stumps, and thus the female pre- 

 sented the appearance of a male. Under these circum- 

 stances the males mated with the female quite as readily as 

 they would have done under normal conditions. 



"I then tried the experiment of gluing female wings upon 

 the male. Here again the mating seemed to occur with 

 normal frequency, and I was unable to detect that the 

 females displayed any unusual aversion toward their 

 effeminate-looking consorts. 



"It is also interesting to note that normal males pay no 

 attention to males with female wings. 



"In another series of experiments the wings were cut 

 entirely off of males and females and the scales brushed 

 off their bodies ; and yet these shabby males were readily 

 accepted by normal females, nor could I see that normal 

 males displayed any aversion to mating with wingless 

 females. 



