SILKWORMS. 



There is a strong family likeness between the species hitherto 

 enumerated. But the genus Attacus, to which we now proceed, 

 represents a different type of insect, in which the prevailing 

 colours are varying shades of red and brown, instead of yellow, 

 and the " windows " are either angular or moon-shaped, instead of 

 circular. The wings, too, are differently shaped ; the anterior 

 pair are very decidedly hooked, and the posterior project far 

 beyond the body, which is very short, the two margins of each 

 hind wing being inclined to one another below at an acute angle. 



By far the grandest of the members of this section is the 

 gigantic Attacus Atlas (Fig. 33) which is noted as being, not only 



Fig. 33. Attacus Atlas (much reduced). 



the largest of all the Lepidoptera, but if we reckon by the 

 superficial area it covers the largest even of all insects whatever. 

 In the figure its dimensions are reduced to rather less than half 

 the natural size ; so that the space really covered by its wings is 

 about four times what is shown in the figure. This truly magnifi- 

 cent creature, which is called in France the "Giant of Moths," 

 inhabits India and China and other parts of South-eastern Asia. 

 It is a familiar object in our own country, as forming usually the 

 centre piece in those small glazed cases of eastern insects one so 

 often sees on sale in the shops of curiosity-mongers. It rests with 

 its wings fully spread, and in this position stretches from tip to tip 

 no less a distance than from seven to ten inches, while occasion- 

 ally the enormous width of nearly twelve inches is attained. 

 These huge wings, after the fashion of its race, the insect flaps, as 



