Introduction 85 
attacked the prometheas in midair; in the morning the lawn was 
strewn with illegible, numbered wings. 
Each experiment is a unit in itself, and is given as such. It 
was at first my intention to reduce the work to tables, and thus 
greatly shorten the text, but so many factors are involved in 
each and every experiment which would be lost in tabulation 
that it seems best to preserve these significant details. 
HISTORICAL RESUME. 
Everyone knows, in a vague way, that moths are nocturnal 
and butterflies are diurnal. While I can think of no instance of 
butterflies flying by night, we do know that some of the moths 
fly during the day. 
There are few records on the actual hour of flight of moths 
of the family Saturniidae. To solve some of the problems of 
their flights it is not enough merely to know that the moths are 
active at night; it is necessary to know at what hour they fare 
forth. We have brought together here some of the chief items 
of information available in the literature. 
Soule and Elliott! tell us that the promethea moth flies any 
time after two in the afternoon. Once a female at the window 
attracted forty males. Cecropia moths will fly near electric 
lights, and may be found under shed roofs by day, and may be 
tracked to their hiding places by their strong odor, especially 
strong in the females. 
Possibly the most purposeful study of the sex activities in 
moths is that of A. G. Mayer He gives the results of experi- 
ments carried on in Florida upon material brought from Massa- 
chusetts. He finds that males are attracted to females not by 
Sense of sight but by odor. A male will fly to a female even if 
his entire abdomen is cut away, and he will seek a female even 
when his abdomen is cut off and the sides of his thorax covered 
with impervious glue. From this he concludes that the spiracles 
are not the seat of the organs by which the male perceives the 
female scent. If the antennae are covered with glue, shellac, 
paraffin, photographie paste, ete., the moth no longer seeks the 
female, and will display no excitement, even though he be placed 
1Caterpillars and Their Moths. 
*Psyche, 9: 15-20. 1900. 
