NOTES ON A CATERPILLAR FARM. 287 



measuring barely four inches across the outspread wings, while the 

 other was nearly six, and the skull mark was brown instead of white. 

 Saturnia mylitta. — These were found on Zizyphus jujuba* in our 

 compound on 4th September. When brought in, one had already 

 completed, and another was just completing, its cocoon. The 

 third had just begun to spin, and finished on the same day. The 

 fourth, which was still in its larva stage and feeding heartily, was 

 rather more than three inches long, sparsely haired in tufts, some- 

 what deeply jointed, and very thick in proportion to its length. It 

 was bright green in colour, with a triangular dark brown mark near 

 the tail, its apex pointing forward, and a yellowish line running 

 from it to near the head. On this line, at the head end, were two 

 bright gold spots, and below it, between each pair of legs, a small 

 oval orange spot with brown edges. About the head were a few 

 small orange spots, and one rather larger dark brown. It cocooned 

 on 5th September. The cocoons were a pale whity brown colour, 

 egg-shaped, about two inches in length, and suspended from the 

 twigs of the leaf plant, two or three leaves of which were drawn down 

 on to the sides of the cocoon. They opened, at the upper end, the 

 first on 21st September, the second on the 22nd. The moths from 

 both of these were males. The two other cocoons opened on the 

 25th September, and the moths from them were females. All 

 through the night of the 25th September we suffered from a regu- 

 lar plague of tussore moths attracted into the house by our speci- 

 mens. We caught twelve of them, all males, some with their 

 wings in so tattered a condition that the wonder was they could 

 fly at all. During the next day one of the females laid a number 

 of eggs in clusters on the twigs of the food plant in the cage. The 

 other laid none. Whether it would have done so had we waited 

 we cannot say, for to avoid a repetition of the previous night's 

 invasion we got rid of all our specimens before dark, and were 

 left in peace. As we were shortly leaving Bombay, we did not try 

 to raise any caterpillars from the eggs, but put them out on a Bear 

 tree in the compound to shift for themselves. The caterpillars 

 seemed to be earlier this year than last, for a single caterpillar that 

 we secured in 1888 did not cocoon till 4th October. The cocoon 

 did not open till 5th November, but this may possibly have been 

 because we took it up to Mahableshwar with us. 



* Native name Bear. 



