EVIDENCE FROM DOMESTICATION 39 



have run wild in Porto Santo, Jamaica, and the 

 Falkland Islands, we see that these animals do not, 

 under new conditions of life, revert to or retain their 

 aboriginal character, as is so generally asserted to 

 be the case by most authors." 



Another instance of transformation, in this case 

 very rapid, under "new conditions of life" is that of 

 the Lunar Moth (Saturnia luna) when transported 

 from Texas to Switzerland. In the year 1870, the 

 entomologist Boll brought to Switzerland a number 

 of cocoons of this large and beautiful moth and in 

 May of the following year the full-grown moths 

 emerged from the cocoons and differed in no par- 

 ticular from the ordinary Texas form. From these 

 moths several hundred fertilized eggs were obtained, 

 from which, in the course of a few weeks, small cater- 

 pillars were hatched. In Texas the caterpillars of 

 this species feed upon the leaves of hickory and black 

 walnut trees, but, as such leaves were not to be had 

 in Switzerland, those of the European walnut were 

 substituted. The substitution was entirely accept- 

 able to the caterpillars, which ate greedily and 

 formed their cocoons at the end of June, the adult 

 moths emerging early in August. Much to the sur- 

 prise of all observers, this second generation of 

 moths, the caterpillars of which were fed upon a plant 

 new to them, differed so much in form, colour and 

 markings from the parent Texan species, that any 



1 Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, 

 Vol. I, pp. 119-20. 



