44 



Riley Presidential Address. 



pecially those of the family Bombycidse, is well known to ento 

 mologists, and many remarkable instances are recorded. (Note 7.) 

 I am tempted to put on record, for the first time, an individual 

 experience which very well illustrates this power, as, on a num 

 ber of occasions when I have narrated it, most persons not familiar 

 with the general facts have deemed it remarkable. In 1863 I ob 

 tained from the then Commissioner of Agriculture, Col. Capron, 

 eggs of Samia cynthia, the Ailanthus silk worm of Japan, which 

 had been recently introduced by him. I was living on East 



FIG. 12. SOME ANTENNA OF INSECTS: a.Telea polyphemus, male, x 3 ; b and c, tips 

 of rays of same still more enlarged ; d, Chirouomus x 6 : <?, section of same still more 

 enlarged. (Original.) 



Madison Street, in Chicago, at the time, a part of the city subse 

 quently swept by the great fire, and since entirely transformed. 

 In the front yard, which (so commonly the case in the old 

 Chicago days) was below the sidewalk, there grew two Ailanthns 

 tress which were the cause of my sending for the aforesaid eggs. 

 I had every reason to believe that there were no other eggs of 

 this species received in any part of the country within hundreds 

 of miles around. It seemed a good opportunity to test this power 



