Thanks everyone for playing this game, and for the kind comments. Eric got it correct.
With moths, fertilization is internal although the egg is not actually fertilized until immediately before it is laid - so, almost external fertilization.
The male has a complex intromittent organ (aedeagus, penis) for depositing sperm into the female.
The female has a relatively large pouch (the bursa copulatrix, or bursa) where the male's sperm is stored.
This is where it gets complicated.
The male's eversible aedeagus apparently extends into the female's bursa (
hey guys, think of the consequences in this species).
Copulation is a lengthy process but in the end the male's sperm ends up in a relatively thick-walled sac (a spermatophore) in the bursa, and
connected to the tip of the female's abdomen by a tube:
1 - bursa
2 - male's spermatophore (sperm package)
3 - duct
4 - ostium
5 - diverticulum
The size of the spermatophore suggests that it is formed inside the bursa rather than it being deposited fully formed.
This would also account for the long copulation time.
The basic structure of both male and female genitalia are consistent for all moths, however the actual 'arrangement' of the bits and pieces is unique for all species (a few exceptions) and thus examination of the genitalia is a basic tool for species identification.
These images are from a small geometric moth a Larch Pug (
Eupithecia lariciata).
An image of an empty bursa copulatrix, for this species, on the MPG site:
http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.e ... ges=7548.2NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
Is that second sphere with the second tube inside the first sphere, or is it just that the two spheres and tubes are inside the thingy you have taken all these spheres and tubes out of? 
