168 



NATURE 



[August 3, 191 1 



probably often accompanied by a nauseous flavour, there is 

 good reason to suppose that they are in effect a means of 

 protection from insect-eating enemies. We have much 

 actual evidence bearing upon the point. Evil-smelling 

 butterflies, like the Acrasas or the well-known I.imnas 

 chrysippus (a large brown butterfly common throughout 

 many parts of Africa and Asia), are often conspicuous, 

 slow-flying, and given to courting observation rather than 

 to avoiding it. These are all marks of butterflies which 

 are more or less immune from attack by birds ; and it maj 

 be added that the frequency with which many of them are 

 copied by other butterflies gives further reason for the con- 

 clusion that they enjoy protection in virtue of their distaste- 

 ful qualities — a protection which other butterflies are enabled 

 to share by resembling them in outward appearance. 



Now, granted that the avoidance of attack by birds is 

 the object of the repulsive scents, we should, of course, 

 expect to find them present not in one sex only, but in both 

 alike. And this is precisely what we 80 find ; moreover, 

 since it is well recognised that the preservation of the life 

 of the female is more important than that of the male for 

 the welfare of the species, we should expect that if there 

 is a difference between the sexes in the intensity of the 

 odour, that difference would be in favour of the female. 

 This, again, is borne, out by observation in a number of 

 cases. Where both sexes are repulsive, the female, as a 

 rule, is the more repulsive of the two, and therefore (as 

 a consolation) the safer from attack. 



So much for the odours unpleasant. Now let us turn 

 to the other kind, the fragrant flower-like perfumes with 

 which we dealt at the outset. These, we saw, are fre- 

 quently associated with specialised scales which are the 

 exclusive property of the male sex. We cannot say quite 

 so much for the odours themselves, for though in the 

 great majority of cases they belong to the males alone, 

 yet the females are not left entirely destitute. Fritz Muller 

 many years ago found evidence of sweet scent in a female 

 white butterfly, and since then Dr. Longstaff has detected 

 in the females of several species a fragrance not unlike 

 that of the male, but usually much weaker. Still, we may 

 certainly say, speaking generally, that the pleasant odours 

 show a vast preponderance in favour of the male. This 

 suggests that they must have some significance in regard 

 to the relations between the sexes ; and, indeed, there can 

 be little or no doubt that, as was first pointed out by Fritz 

 Muller, these scents -are employed by the males in court- 

 ship as a means of attraction ; they may also perhaps serve 

 as a means of recognition. That their employment is occa- 

 sional, and not constant, appears from the fact that they 

 are so often furnished with a provision for keeping them 

 confined until wanted. There is, so far as I am aware, no 

 direct evidence that they are more plentifully liberated 

 during courtship ; but to anyone who has observed the 

 persistent fluttering of white butterflies about and around 

 each other under those circumstances, it can hardly fail to 

 occur that the fanning wing-movements of the male must 

 have the effect of encouraging the evaporation and diffusion 

 of the odour: also perhaps of aiding ils escape from the disi 

 through the footstalk and so into the lamina of the. plume- 

 scale. The flowery scents would thus come under the head 

 of those features which have been called bv Prof. Poulton 

 "epigamic"; characters, that is which, like the splendid 

 plumage of some cock-birds, are believed to further the 

 of matrimony. If this interpretation be correct, it is 



most interesting to find that the aesthetic prefere I 



butterflies in the matter of scents are so much like our own. 

 In other insects, as well as in many of the higher animals, 



we find attraction exi 1 bj odours that to our senses 



are disgusting. Butterflies themselves are nol exempt from 



a depraved taste where f 1 i concerned; the besl bail foi 



the purple emperor is well known to be a pi ,.f putrid 



meat. Hut in matters of love-making, the butterflj seems 

 to resort for his means oi fascination to methods which 

 recall the human lover with his "ifts of flowers and boxes 

 of vanilla chocolate. 



The evil odours tend to be somewhat persistent. Iti some 

 thi j in iy be 'I' 1. 1 ii.l for a long time after the butter 

 fly is dead ami siiff. The agreeable scents, on the othei 

 hand, are usually evanescent, becoming imperceptible verj 

 soon ct has ceased ti 1 asion I 



was able to detect the lemon pi. mi odoui ol 



white when the butterfly had been dead for eleven days, but 

 this is probably an extreme case. Both kinds of odour 

 may be present in the same species ; when this is so, it is 

 commonly found that the first impression given by the 

 butterfly is a disagreeable one, the pleasant constituent only 

 becoming apparent when its distributing apparatus is 

 specially exposed. These cases of a double odour follow the 

 same rule of repulsive scents being common to tin- two 

 sexes, and agreeable perfumes being confined to tie m lie 



This finishes what I have to say on the subject of the 

 scents of butterflies. I am conscious that 1 stand in need 

 of your indulgence; is, from the force of unavoidable cir- 

 cumstances, 1 have had but a short time in which to prepare 

 this lecture. But, "qui s'excuse, s'accuse," and I trust 

 that in spite of its sketchy and imperfect character the 

 discourse to which you have just listened may have suc- 

 ceeded in quickening the interest that most of us feel in 

 these very attractive objects of nature, and in giving fresh 

 emphasis to the fact that the study of insects in general, 

 and of butterflies in particular, is capable of shedding light 

 upon questions of high importance in the science of biology. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Mr. Hugh Gunn, formerly Director of Education of the 

 Orange Free State, has accepted an invitation from the 

 Government of Western Australia to ac t as adviser and 

 organiser for the university which that State is founding 

 at Perth. 



Mr. W. II. McMillan has been appointed to the newly 

 founded chair of mining at University College, Notting- 

 ham. Prof. Heaton has been appointed principal of the 

 college in succession to the Rev. J. E. Symes, who has 

 resigned. 



Among the bequests of M. Marino Corgialegno, a 

 naturalised British subject, who died on April 20, an 

 40,000/. to institute a school at Athens on the lines ol 

 Eton or Harrow, " sharing in the desire expressed to me 

 by his Majesty King George that education in Greece 

 should be rendered more perfect by the establishment of a 

 public or secondary school upon the model of the English 

 public schools, where boys will receive a regular coins, ,it 

 teaching as well as of good breeding "; 40,000/. for a school 

 fgr craftsmen at Argostoli, in the island of Cephalonia : 

 15,000/. for technical scholarships; 10,000/. each for a 

 school for girls in Cephalonia, for schools or gymnasia in 

 Argostoli, for a public library at Argostoli, for the Agri- 

 cultural Society al Athens, for a polyclinical hospital in 

 Athens, and foi the Society for the Propagation of Useful 

 Books. 



Tut: Educational Science Section of the British Assoc 

 tion will meet ai Portsmouth, under the presidency of the 

 Righl Rev. J- E. C. Welldon, Dean of Manchester, ["hi 

 president in his inaugural address, which will be delivered 

 in the- section on Thursday, August 31, will treat ol educa- 

 tional problems of the day. His address will be followed 



by a discussion on the overlapping between s idary 



schools ami universities ami other places of higher 

 lion, which will 1« opened l>\ Prof. \. Smithells, F.R.S., 

 .in.l Prol. R. \. 1.0 goi jr. On Frida) . September 1, 

 will be a discussion on the place ol examinations in edui 1- 

 lion, wiili papers bv Mr. P. |. Hartog, Miss Burstall, Dr. 

 T. P. N'linn, and Mis, I),-. White. The discussion will be 

 opened In Mi- \, V Somerville and Mr. W. D. Bentliff. 

 A discussion on grammatical terminology will I" opened 

 l,c Prof. E. V. Sonnensi hein and Mr. P. Shaw I 

 (i M Monday, Septembei -). the subcommittee on mental 

 and physical factors involved in education will presenl its 

 report, which will deal with the question of 

 mindedness in children. There will be a discussion on the 

 diagnosis ol feeble mindedness, with papers b\ I >i Abelson, 

 Dr. C. W. Sal 1 b; , and Dr. I redgold, followed b\ ,1 dis- 

 ation ol feeble-minded 1 hildren, with 

 papers bj Mrs. Burgwin, Miss Dendy, and Dr. Auden. 



Prol I \ Green 1 II il I a pa] n backward 



, hildren. < In 1 .1 &a\ . Si ptember 5. thi re will be a dis- 

 , ussion on pi actical 1 the Docl j 11 '1 and N'aval 



Si hools, w ith papi 1 - b\ Mr. 1 n admaster of 



the Dockyard School, and Mr. W. II. T. Pain, of H.M.S. 



NO. 2179, VOL. 87] 



