ANIMAL COURTSHIP.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4821, 6 April 1925, Page 4

ANIMAL COURTSHIP.

SOME CURIOUS DETAILS.

HOW ELIES ATTRACT MATES.

Very curious details in the domestic ■life of some of the lower land insects and animals were discussed by Mr Julian Huxley in a lecture he gave at the London Royal Institute on “The Courtship of Animals and its • Biological Bearings.”

The functions of courtship were acted very large, fir Huxley explained. through the mind of the opposite sex, but in the much lower forms of animal life courtship existed scarcely at all, and it was only when the higher marine worms were considered that there was an definite evidence of other than mere haphazard mating. In these the signs of having any definite brain were characterised by the gatherings that took place at very definite seasons and states of tide. A great conglomeration of males and females would be formed, and there would be seen the curious antics of the male worms, who danced what might be termed a jig round one female nr the centre. As many as ten or eleven worms had been observed going through this curious ceremonial at the same time.

The crabs came next in the clearness of possessing courtship habits, and then the spiders. The male hunting spider was almost a microbe compared with the female, and it was .1 very common thing in certain species for the female to devour her mate. In the overtures to the mating of thsee insects there was one special feature to notice, and this was the definite sights of interpretation of sound. The male in approaching the female’s web would, on putting his foot on the first threads, cause a certain vibration of them which the female could at once define as not being caused by a fly or other form of food. This was an actual case of ‘‘the message of love coining along the wires.” in the locust and cricket was demonstrated the fact tha.t in these animals sounds have a very definite biological function, in the former a case of instrumental, and in the latter of wind mupic. Certain butterflies used scent as the attractive influence for females, and were equipped with scent-spraying apparatus secreted cither in the wings or legs. Butterflies were the only mammal where the scent secreted was not offensive to the human individual. The empis fly carried no personal adornment, but instead gripped by its legs a large white egg-shaped body, made from a white, foamy substance which was secreted in its tissues. On this was often placed a smaller fly or other insect which it would offer to the female that attracted it most. In a kindred species one came upon the first and very rudimentary form of art. Instead of holding a fly as an offering, it would hold some bright object, such as a piece of bright paper or leaf. THE POLITE FLY. On being put into a matchbox a carnivorous fly of a kindred order was given an insect, which he immediately proceeded to devour. A second time an insect was given to him, but at the same time a female was introduced. This time, instead* of taking it himself, he immediately wrapped it up in silk and laid it before the female, and when .the operation was repeated with the female withdraw?! he again packed it up and hunted foi the female which had been present. In. conclusion, Mr Huxley pointed out that, apart from the biological meaning of all the colour, of birds and insects, if the world was deprived of them there would not be left 1 onetneth of the beauty which characterised the country through these forms of animal life—Morning Post.