203 
Psyche 
[December 
(most of the specimens I have seen bear the date of August; a 
few July and September ) where the female forms a conspicuous 
object when flying, since its flight is slow and difficult on account 
of its abnormally lengthened abdomen. He says further, “The 
male, on the contrary, is extremely rare and exceedingly rapid 
in flight. It is sharp-eyed, takes flight rapidly, and is rarely 
captured.” I have never seen but one male alive, but it was 
captured without difficulty. One morning in mid-August 1900, 
I spied a male resting on the soil beneath an old apple tree on 
the grounds of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods 
Hole, Mass. It was in company with a considerable number of 
females and was still there when I returned after hastily securing 
an insect net from the near-by laboratory building. This male 
appeared to be in no way especially wary, and although he may 
have been freshly emerged, he was fully mature, with the body 
completely colored and hardened. 4 
Judging from the behavior of this individual and the fre- 
quency with which males are taken in Central and South America, 
it seems plausible to suppose that males of the northern race 
are not nearly so abundant and that this is a true spanandrous 
race. Probably, however, even in northern localities males at 
times occur in somewhat greater numbers. 
The males are so notoriously uncommon and so prized by 
collectors that attempts have been made to attract them by en- 
closing a number of females in a gauze box exposed in a place 
where the species is abundant. I have been told by collectors in 
Chicago many years ago that this method is sometimes successful 
and that in certain localities a few males may be obtained in 
this way, just as males of certain moths may be trapped in great 
numbers by the same subterfuge. This may be due to the pre- 
sence of males only in certain restricted places. At any rate the 
economy of this extremely aberrant and interesting group of Hy- 
men optera deserves further study, since it appears that in dif- 
ferent parts of its geographical range, it very evidently repro- 
produces in a different manner, the northern race represented 
4 Professor Nathan Banks confirms this observation as he tells me that a 
male specimen which he took at Falls Church, Va. was likewise not a very 
active insect. 
