WILD SILKWORMS. 91 



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it clings to some support, regularly up and down like fans. The 

 "windows" are of enormous size, even for so large an insect; 

 they are triangular in shape, perfectly transparent, and edged with 

 a streak of dark brownish black. As regards colour, the wings are 

 divided into three areas which are ornamented with various 

 shades of reddish brown ; the central division, which contains the 

 " windows," is outlined with dark, succeeding which comes a pale 

 band which on the outer side shades off into a broad dark cloud. 

 An extremely elegant dark wavy line also runs parallel to the outer 

 margins of the wings, and puts a neat finish to the variegated surface. 



This splendid insect, which had long been known in the Western 

 world in the dead condition, was seen for the first time alive in 

 Europe in the year 1868, when a number of cocoons sent from 

 India, by Captain Hutton, were hatched in France. It was 

 apparently not till ten years afterwards that a living specimen was 

 first seen in our own country; in the year 1878, M. Wailly had 

 the pleasure of seeing some emerge in London from cocoons 

 he had received from India. Since then it has been bred in this 

 country, the eggs having been laid and all the stages of the insect 

 passed through in the land of its adoption. 



Notwithstanding the great size of the perfect insect, the egg is 

 not extraordinarily large, and in fact is considerably smaller than 

 that of the Tusser moth. It is whitish, tinged with reddish brown, 

 an appearance caused by a fluid with which it is wet when laid. 

 The colour is, therefore, not permanent, but can be washed off by 

 immersing in water for a short time. The newly hatched cater- 

 pillar is black and white, but, as is so frequently the case with the 

 larvae of the Lepidoptera, the colours change more or less at each 

 moult, till finally a delicate pea-green hue is acquired; but this 

 colour is modified by a quantity of a white powder consisting of a 

 waxy material, with which the body is covered. There are a 

 number of spines all down the body, which point backwards. The 

 cocoon is enveloped in the leaves of the food-plant, and is irregular 

 in outline, being shaped like a bag ; unlike those hitherto referred 

 to, it is not a closed cocoon, but is naturally open at one end, 

 so that no change is produced by the escape of the moth. From 

 the side of the open end, there passes a long silken cord, the 

 further end of which is fastened round a twig, and at the opposite 

 end of the cocoon there is a web-like expansion of silk which 

 helps to fix it. It is of a light brown colour and from two to 

 three inches in length. The chrysalis is bright brown, and for 

 so enormous an insect, is very small. This will not surprise us, 

 however, if we remember that the size of the perfect insect results 

 mainly from the great development of the wings, and that these in 



