Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
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Article beginning on page 332.
Psyche 5:332, 1888.

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shown was when the antennae were ex-
tended as if alert. Then my presence
near at hand or my passing would be
recognized by a rocking or bowing ~no-
tion of all the wings in common, pro-
duced, apparently, by the action of the
middle legs in lowering and raising the
body upon the pivot formed by the in-
sertion of the hind legs ; the tips of the wings moved slowly forward and back-
ward, the forward motion more abrupt
than the backward, over an, arc of not
more than a quarter of a centimetre ; the motion was accompanied by no percep-
tible sound.
On the sth, a bright, warm day, the
butterfly had turned back to the win-
dow at about noon, and my appearance
led to some fluttering against the pane. As I remained motionless, it gained
heart, walked about the broad ledge be-
neath the window with open wings and
antennae spread at right angles, with
every few steps depressing them like
stiff sticks till they touched the ground, beating time, as it were, with its march, and, finally, took up its position on the ledge, and turning its back to the sun,
expanded its wings fully, even depres-
ing them so that the tips touched the
surface of rest ; the antennae retained
the alert position of the day before.
Wishing to see what would happen I
moved from my position directly oppo-
site the window, my head about three
feet away, toward the butterfly, but as
slowly as possible. No effect was pro-
duced until my eyes were within a foot
of the butterfly facing me, when its
wings shut with a snap and then began
to vibrate ; the tips of the wings ap-
peared to have a lateral vibration of not more, probably considerably less, than
a couple of millimetres, while the an-
tennae vibrated forward and backward
as much as laterally, and not over a
millimetre. I could perceive no sound
whatever. I slowly turned my head to
bring my ear opposite, but could still
detect nothing. On endeavoring to
bring my ear still nearer by the quietest possible approach, the butterfly flew
again to the window and fluttered about. Subsequently, I got within six inches
and could then distinctly hear a rustle
like the flapping of the wings of an in- sect against a window pane at a dis-
tance, and could see that there was not
the slightest motion of the fore wing on the hind. It afterwards partook so
greedily of some half-rotten apple of-
fered it that it permitted me to hustle
it about with my finger without ap-
parent fright.
PALAEARCTIC LEPIDOPTERA. -The cele-
brated collection of PALAEARCTIC LEPIDOP- TERA made by the late PROFESSOR HEINRICH FREY, of Zurich, is offered for sale.
The collection consists of 4404 species and ~5,600 specimens, all in excellent condition. It occupies loo corked and glass-covered drawers, contained in three cabinets. The collection will always have a high scientific value as it contains the types of all the new microlepidoptera described by Professor
Frey. There are about So of these of which about 50 are unique.
For further information apply to DR. MAX STANDFL-SS, MUSEUM DES POLYTECHNICUM,
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND.




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