INSECT LIFE 169 



female in this is due, I think, simply to the fact that 

 he is so satiny white, whereas she is somewhat sombre 

 in dress and presents no striking contrast with her 

 surroundings. 



Watching individual ghost moths of both sexes 

 closely, I find they will often dance over the same 

 yard of ground, meet and pass each other without act 

 of courtship. A male moth is spinning and a female 

 comes spinning past him ; or the male spins past the 

 female ; and yet, again and again, I have noticed, 

 these ecstatic dancers take virtually no note of each 

 other. There may be a trifling sign that they see 

 each other, nothing more ; and they go on with their 

 weird exercise, quite unconcerned by each other. I 

 do not say this is always so ; but very often ; and it 

 is conduct such as this which feeds the doubt in my 

 mind whether the general and accepted theory is 

 enough that says: "The only aim and end of an 

 insect performance like this is sexual; the moths 

 dance to attract each other's notice." May there not 

 be an ecstasy in it over and above motives of attrac- 

 tion over and above Nature's plan of Utility ? 



I find myself almost alone in questioning whether 

 Utility accounts for all these mystic and charming 

 scenes in the drama of wild life. I alone seem to 

 doubt whether Utility is the Be- All as well as the 

 End- All of an insect's dance, a bird's song, a flower's 

 colour or pattern. Everybody seems ready to set it 

 all to the giant credit of Utility. I recognise the huge 



