Rau—O bservations on Samia Cecropia, Linn. 45 
the species took food and was long lived, and may have 
been polygamous and the proportion of the sexes equal. 
Possibly the female died of exhaustion in ovipositing, 
while the male was able to fly about actively, finding and 
impregnating many females, which, being heavily laden 
with ova, were inactive and could not conveniently fly 
about to seek the males. Can it possibly be that the 
longer duration of life of the male, as we now see it in the 
Cecropia moth is a vestige of the time when such 
longevity was of benefit to the species? 
