374 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Oct., 'ij 



Notes and NeA?v^s. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS 

 OF THE GLOBE. 



Sex Attraction Overcome by Light Stimulation (Lepid., Col.)- 



Those who are familiar with Fabre's delightful stories in "The Life 

 of the Caterpillar" will remember that he was greatly exercised in en- 

 deavoring to account for the facility with which the male moth will 

 recognize from a great distance the existence of his mate. The usual 

 theory of the operation of the sense of smell was to him utterly un- 

 satisfactory. 



Many years ago I was astonished at the great number of male Ce- 

 cropia that came to a cage in which I had females confined. By re- 

 ferring to my statement in the Entomological News of May, 1895, 

 I find that in addition to the number destroyed by robins and cats, the 

 wings being the principal part of the debris left, I counted three hun- 

 dred and forty-two specimens taken in four nights. I am reminded of 

 this old story by a recent experience. 



For many years Telea polyphemus has been in this immediate neigh- 

 borhood an exceedingly rare insect. Last autumn I had given me a 

 few Polyphemus cocoons gathered from trees some ten or fifteen miles 

 distant. When recently the moths began to emerge, I left two females 

 in a cage on my back porch for several nights, and while the number 

 of arriving and inquisitive males (eighteen in all) was not large, as 

 compared with my previous Cecropia experience, there was one curious 

 feature in connection with their advent, on which I should be glad to 

 hear Fabre philosophize if he were still with us. I have every reason 

 to believe that the male moths came to my lure from a considerable 

 distance. When they arrived, or possibly soon afterward, they dis- 

 covered, only five or six feet from the cage in which were confined 

 the females they were doubtless seeking, an electric light illuminating 

 my insect trap which, except on brilliant moonlight nights, attracts all 

 sorts of nocturnal hexapods. Their attention seems to have been thus 

 distracted from their previous quest and instead of going to the cage, 

 or remaining there, if possibly they reached it, they all without excep- 

 tion made their way into the trap from which they could not escape. 

 The brilliant light seems to have had so strong an influence upon them 

 as to have counteracted their previous inclination rendering it power- 

 less. It was also very noticeable that the tinld moths, with but a single 

 exception, were smaller than those hatched in captivity, a circumstance 

 possibly indicating a less abundant or a less invigorating food-plant on 

 which the larvae had been feeding. 



My insect trap disposes of a great many Lachnosterna. Within the 



