In these cases the advantage is wholly on the side of the parasite. But there are cases of close relationship between insects and flowering plants where the instinctive behaviour gives rise to reciprocal benefit. The Yucca is a genus of American Liliaceous plants, with large pale sweet-smelling flowers; and these are dependent for fertilization on the instinctive behaviour of a small straw-coloured moth of the genus _Pronuba_. Just when the Yucca plant blossoms in the summer, the moths emerge from their chrysalis cases. They mate; and the female then flies to a flower, collects a pellet of pollen from the anthers, proceeds to another flower, pierces the pistil with her sharp ovipositor, lays her eggs among the ovules, and finally darting to the stigma stuffs the pollen pellet into its funnel-shaped extremity (Fig. 14). If the flower be not thus fertilized the ovules do not develop; and if the ovules do not develop the grubs which are hatched from the moth’s eggs die of starvation. There are enough ovules to supply food to the grubs, and leave a balance to continue the race of Yuccas. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--Yucca Flower and Moth.] Whether the female moth is attracted to the flower by sight or smell, we do not know. And whether the male finds the female, in the case of the Yucca moth, through scent, we are not in a position to state with certainty. It has, however, been shown that in certain moths[33] some odour emitted by the female is the attractive stimulus, affecting sense-organs situated on the antennæ of the male. To females confined in an opaque vessel over the mouth of which gauze was tied, the males came in numbers; but when a clear glass vessel was inverted, and sand was packed round the mouth, so as to prevent the escape of air from the interior, no males came, though the imprisoned females were clearly visible. If the antennæ of the males were either removed or coated with shellac the moths failed to notice the females even when close to them. In what way the intact male is made aware of the direction from which the scent comes, we do not know--possibly by differential stimulation in the antennæ, the moth instinctively turning in the direction of greater stimulation. It will be seen, therefore, that in the case of the behaviour of the Yucca moth--behaviour which is essential to the biological end of reproduction--there is much detail concerning which we are ignorant. But for our present purpose the important point to notice is that the procedure of the female cannot be due to imitation; nor can it be the outcome of individually acquired experience; for the method of procedure is not gradually learnt, but is carried out without apparent hesitation the first and only time the appropriate occasion presents itself. Not only does the moth take no heed of her grubs, but they are so placed that she could not in any case ascertain by observation that only if the ovules are fertilized do her offspring thrive.