136 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



Specimen of Litoprosopus futilis. This moth I have never taken 

 except at Rockledge, on the Indian River, where it is not uncom- 

 mon. But it has been found by others in various parts of South 

 Florida. I do not know whether its life-history has been recorded. 



THE ASSEMBLING OF THE CECROPIA MOTH. 



By O. S. Westcott, Maywood, 111. 



This is a somewhat hackneyed topic, but an experience of mine 

 last Summer is possibly worthy of record. 



In the Spring of 1894 I collected a large number of Cocropia 

 cocoons, from which the moths began to emerge early in June. 

 On the night of June 9, 1894, I left one female in a cage made 

 of wire gauze. On the morning of the loth I found thirty-six 

 males about the cage. On the night of the loth I left two females 

 in the cage, but on the morning of the nth there were but seven 

 males near it. The weather was oppressively warm, but other- 

 wise the climatic conditions were not noticeably different. On 

 the night of the nth I left five females in the cage. On the 

 morning of the 12th there were eighty-one males at the cage. 

 Two of these were wrapped in what was apparently a loving, if 

 not conjugal, embrace. I placed them in a cage by themselves 

 and they remained in coitu (etymologically speaking) the entire 

 day. 



On the night of the 12th I placed six females in the cage. 

 When I looked out of an upper window early on the morning of 

 the 13th there was a cloud of Cecropias on and about the cage and 

 extending from it for several feet in every direction, which re- 

 minded me at once of the only flight of Danais archippus it has 

 been my good fortune to see. When I once took seven archippus 

 at one sweep of an insect net, I thought Lepidoptera were just 

 then abundant, but the present experience was even more striking. 

 A cat was amusing herself in striking down and devouring some 

 of the most active ones, leaving, however, the wings. Many 

 were flying away, but the number remaining when I came to 

 count them was two hundred and eighteen. Of these there were 

 five pairs in coitu {/). All, however, were males. 



On the morning of the 12th a robin was busy among them, 

 but the cat had evidently made way with more than a score. 



