506 : Araujia Albens as a Moth-Trap. [June 
The riper flowers, apparently, are not sought by the moths; 
probably the tempting nectar has lost its sweetness or bouquet, 
or, perhaps, in some way has become changed, or, may be, has 
been absorbed by the flower in the process of ripening. I have 
in several instances plucked flowers to which living moths were 
attached, and have pinned such flowers to the floor of an insect- 
box, and subsequently found that the moths had freed themselves. 
The tissues of the flower begin to soften and wilt very soon after 
Separation from the plant. In cases where the moths had freed 
themselves as above, they seldom lived many hours, and appeared 
to have died from exhaustion caused by their efforts to escape. 
As between.the moth and the flower, the release or death of the 
former seems to be reduced to the single point, namely, whether 
the moth or the flower has the greater vitality. ; 
As some plants are exceedingly sensitive, I thought it pos- 
sible that the flowers of Araujia might be so. I accordingly 
experimented with a bristle, to learn whether the rigidity of the 
anther-wings might not be owing to irritability caused by the 
proboscis of the moth, but was unable to detect any effect of 
this kind-as resulting from friction. By following the same 
movement or curve that a moth has to follow with its proboscis 
in reaching up towards the more interior structure of the flower, 
and then following the further motion that is made by the moth 
when it tries to withdraw its proboscis, my bristle was held fast 
between the edges of the wing-like extensions, the same as is 
the proboscis of a captured moth. 
As pertaining to the foregoing remarks, I will mention the 
following species of Lepidoptera, etc., as determined by various 
entomological friends, taken by me during three seasons—1880- 
_83—from the blossoms of Araujia - 
Colias chrysotheme var., Colias kewaydin, Pamphila sylvanus, 
D eis carye@, Pyrameis hunteri, Pyrgus syrictus, Syrichthus 
-~ tessellatus, Plusia pasipheia, Plusia gamma, Agrotis c-nigrum, 
Heliothis sp. 
Oak Other insects are often found upon or within the flowers, such 
i _as bees, ants, and beetles, but seldom as prisoners. Among the 
latter the little (beetle) Zhroscus sericeus Le Conte was detected. 
_ Of the species above named, probably two-thirds of the lepi- ` 
dopterous forms that are caught belong to the three species 
-Plusia pasipheia pheia, Plusia gamma, and Agrotis c-nigrum. 
