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This was her lure, her love-philtre; this it was that revolutionised the Oak Eggar world. The sand retained it for some time and diffused the effluvium in turn.
Three years went by and by chance two more cocoons of the Monk or Oak Eggar again fell into my hands. Both produced females, at an interval of a few days towards the middle of August; so that I was able to vary and repeat my experiments. I rapidly repeated the experiments which had given me such positive results in the instance of the Great Peacock moth.
In the same way the putrid frog emits and disseminates around it atoms of putrescence which travel to a considerable distance and so attract and delight the Necrophorus, the carrion-beetle. But in the case of the Great Peacock or the Oak Eggar, what molecules are actually disengaged? None, according to our sense of smell.
Do not let us draw conclusions from that fact alone. We saw in the case of the Great Peacock that more serious reasons than the truncation of the antennæ made return as a rule impossible. Moreover, a second Bombyx or Eggar, the Clover Moth, very like the Oak Eggar, and like it superbly plumed, poses us a very difficult problem.
It is this that warns the Saprinidæ of the fetid arum, the Silphidæ and the Necrophori of the putrid mole. The second category of odour, far superior in its action through space, escapes us completely, because we lack the essential sensory equipment. The Great Peacock moth and the Oak Eggar know it at the time of their nuptial festivities.
It is fairly abundant around my home; even in the orchard I find its cocoon, which is easily confounded with that of the Oak Eggar. I was at first deceived by the resemblance. From six cocoons, which I expected to yield Oak Eggars, I obtained, about the end of August, six females of the other species.
The importance of this fact will presently appear. As I suspected, my cocoon was truly that of the celebrated Oak Eggar. On the 20th of August a female emerged from it: corpulent, big-bellied, coloured like the male, but lighter in hue.
Considering the rarity of the Oak Eggar, and remembering the years of fruitless search on the part of my helpers and myself, this number was no less than stupefying. The undiscoverable had suddenly become multitudinous at the call of the female. Whence did they come? From all sides, and undoubtedly from considerable distances.
"Look out, Skipjack, there's a moth." "Anything worth having?" demanded Bobus. "Only a grass eggar. Fama, fame; volat, flies; Idomoeea ducem, that Idomaeeus the leader; pulsum, expelled. "Never mind catching him," said Bobus, "we've got dozens." "Yes, but I don't want him frizzling alive in my candle."
The recently metamorphosed female must mature a little and her organs must settle to their work. Born in the morning, the female of the Great Peacock moth sometimes has visitors the night of the same day; but more often on the second day, after a preparation of forty hours or so. The Oak Eggar does not publish her banns of marriage before the third or fourth day.
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