OBSERVATIONS ON THE DURATION OF LIFE, ON 
COPULATION AND ON OVIPOSITION IN 
SAMITA CECROPIA, LINN.* 
Pup Rav. 
I. INTRODUCTION. 
I became interested in Weismann’s writings on the 
duration of life in insects and was attracted by the appar- 
ent opportunity of doing more work along these lines. In 
the greater number of his citations it is not stated whether 
the lives of both sexes, in any one species, be of equal or 
of unequal lengths, and in but few instances does he give 
any exact information on the duration of the life of the 
male, or of the fertilized or the unfertilized female. 
I, therefore, decided to make further observations on 
the duration of life in the male and also on the fertilized 
and unfertilized female; on copulation and oviposition; 
on the relation of the duration of life to perfect or imper- 
fect oviposition; on the relation of time spent in copulo 
to perfect or imperfect oviposition; and on the relation of 
ages of parents at the time of copulation to perfect or 
imperfect oviposition. | 
The material selected for these observations was the 
common Cecropia moth, Samia cecropia Linn. 
The cocoons, sixty-nine in number, were gathered early 
in April, 1909, in the fields near the river Des Peres, just 
south of Forest Park, St. Louis, Mo. They were placed in 
wire cages (11 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 24 inches) and kept in an 
outhouse to insure them against premature hatching. The 
imagines emerged at intervals from May 14th to June 
14th (forty-three males and twenty-five females) ; from 
one cocoon none hatched, and none was parasitized. 
Notes were made on twelve copulating pairs and on 
four unfertilized females. Lack of facilities made it im- 
* Read before the Entomological Section September 30, 1909, and pre- 
sented by title to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, December 6, 
1909. 
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