290 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



approach it in specialisation ; while in Sam/a the male is even now 

 progressing in complexity, and the female has not had time to 

 approach it in development. There are many indications in the 

 antennae of Samia which point to its recent or even present progress. 

 The pectinations are not well established in form and position ; the 

 cones are variable in position ; even the segmentation is more or less 

 indefinite in portions of the clavola. This appears to bear out 

 Chapman's view {anted, p. 283). 



The sexes repeatedly pair more than once. A male will pair 

 with more than one female (see Psyche, vii., p. 167). No less than 

 seven males of Callosamia promethea are recorded as pairing with a 

 single female {Joe. cit.). Moffat gives {Can. Ent., 1894, p. 240) 

 an interesting account of the assembling of males of C. promethea to 

 a female hanging from the cocoon from which she had emerged, 

 about 3 p.m. on June nth, 1894. The ? was quite still, not a 

 movement of wing or foot, during the time that the males flew 

 around, before pairing took place. Mayer describes {Psyche, ix., 

 pp. 15 — 20) a most interesting series of experiments " on the mating 

 instinct in moths," especially as exemplified in C. pj'omethea. They are 

 much too long even to summarise, but his conclusions may be 

 stated as follows : 



1. The male is positively chemotactic toward some substance which emanates 

 from the abdomen of the female, and which he perceives through olfactory organs 

 situated upon his antennae. 



2. Females 30 — 60 hours old are much more attractive to males than are young 

 females 5 — 10 hours old. Virgin females are somewhat more attractive than are 

 fertilised ones of the same age. 



3. The male will mate at least four times, either with the same or with 

 different females. 



4. Neither males nor females pay any attention to the appearance of their 

 partners. The melanic colours of the $ have not been brought about through 

 sexual selection on the part of the female. 



Gynandromorphism is marvellously frequent in our European 

 Attacids, more particularly in Saturnia pavonia. Schultz mentions 

 ( Illus. Woch. filr Ent., i., pp. 385, 416, 445 ; ii., pp. 462, 474, 494) no 

 fewer than 74 specimens belonging to 5 species, viz., Saturn ia pyri, 4 

 examples, S. spini 2, S. pavonia 48, .S. hybr. emiliae 3, S. hybr. risii 3, ,S. 

 caecigena 1, Aglia tau 7, A. ab. fere- nigra 4, A. ab. nigerrima 2. Later {Joe. 

 cit., hi., pp. 184, 294, 311), he supplements this by the addition of the fol- 

 lowing: S. pavonia 3, S. hybr. emiliae 1, .S. hybr. risii 2, S. hybr. schaufussi 

 10, S. hybr. standfussi 1 2, Aglia tau 1. [For details, seepostea, pp. 302 et 

 seqi] Several unrecorded examples of .5. pavonia are in various collec- 

 tions, and no doubt these numbers, large as they are, could be materially 

 increased. Gynandromorphism is also recorded in a specimen of 

 Platysamia cecropia {Soc. Ent., xii., p. 9) bred by Frings. 



Possibly, however, the most interesting phenomenon presented 

 by the Attacids is the ease with which many of the species hybridise. 

 So extensive have been the recent experiments of Standfuss and 

 others that it is difficult to deal with them at length. One may 

 pass by Hagen's remarks (cited Can. Ent., viii., pp. 77 et sea.) that 

 Platysamia Columbia might be a hybrid between P. cecropia and promethea, 

 as being a matter of speculation, not warranted by later facts. As 

 10 positive evidence — Bigot, a French sericulturist, obtained Anthcraea 

 hybr. pernyi x yamamai, and A. hybr. yamamai X pernyi, eggs 

 from which produced in due course magnificent moths, the hybrid 



