Ban — Longevity in Satumiid Moths. 59 



ova produced before they had even hatched from the 

 egg, is unusual. Not only the means for the entire lot 

 show a low per cent, of fertility, but the records of the 

 individuals also show that only 8 out of the 27 females 

 were successful in contributing even a fair number of 

 living young to the next generation. Nor can we glean 

 from these data any evidence that repeated or prolonged 

 matings increase the fertility of the egg masses, or that 

 somewhat abbreviated mating reduces it. The careful 

 search for such evidence revealed the fact that those 

 individuals which mated the full time or even twice or 

 thrice showed as high a proportion of infertile or non- 

 viable ova as the others, while good and bad cases of 

 fertility appear also in those females which mated only 

 a few hours. This evidence strengthens our belief that 

 in this species, as in Cecropia, an amount of sperm suf- 

 ficient for the fertilization of the ordinary mass of ova 

 enters the seminal receptacle very early in the mating 

 period; the ova pass through this male element, and if 

 they are capable of fertilization they become fertilized 

 by this contact, and those unfit pass out without the 

 wherewithal for development, and copulation for a 

 greater length of time will have no effect upon these ova 

 which are not perfect to receive the spermatozoa. 



TELEA POLYPHEMUS. 



The difficulty of inducing the Polyphemus to mate has 

 been explained elsewhere. The data on 10 fertilized 

 females from several localities are given below. (See 

 Table 33.) 



The 2 insects from Fall River deposited ova of a high 

 per cent, of fertility, but the one which mated only 9 

 hours was superior in fertility to her sister who spent 

 13 hours in copulo. The one female which was taken 

 at the light one evening in St. Louis, with history un- 

 known, deposited 66 eggs, every one of which was fertile. 

 The 6 females from Augusta, Ga., which mated from 12 



