What would happen if I imprisoned her in an opaque receptacle?
Would not such a receptacle arrest or set free the informing effluvia according to its nature?
Practical physics has given us wireless telegraphy by means of the Hertzian vibrations of the ether.

Had the Great Peacock butterfly outstripped and anticipated mankind in this direction?
In order to disturb the whole surrounding neighbourhood, to warn pretenders at a distance of a mile or more, does the newly emerged female make use of electric or magnetic waves, known or unknown, that a screen of one material would arrest while another would allow them to pass?
In a word, does she, after her fashion, employ a system of wireless telegraphy?
I see nothing impossible in this; insects are responsible for many inventions equally marvellous.
Accordingly I lodged the female in boxes of various materials; boxes of tin-plate, wood, and cardboard.

All were hermetically closed, even sealed with a greasy paste.

I also used a glass bell resting upon a base-plate of glass.
Under these conditions not a male arrived; not one, though the warmth and quiet of the evening were propitious.

Whatever its nature, whether of glass, metal, card, or wood, the closed receptacle was evidently an insuperable obstacle to the warning effluvia.
A layer of cotton-wool two fingers in thickness had the same result.