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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[JUKEi 2, 1884, 



ill Paria, at the Sociot^ d'Acclimatatiou, were the produce of 

 larv?e reared in large numbers iu warm rooms. My corre- 

 spondeut in Scotland, Mr. TLuiibuU, reared an immense 

 quantity of the hybrid worms, together with. Pernyi worms, 

 in warm rooms, and it is a well-known fact that worms bred 

 under these conditions often get the germ of disease in them ; 

 the Pei-nyi worms were aff*5eted just the same as the hybrid 

 ones. 



Another diiEculty came in the way of the successful rear- 

 ing for 18S3. The hybrid moths in 1SS3, in consequence of 

 warm weather, began to emerge in April, about three weeks 

 before the usual time, so that two generations were obtained. 

 Most of the moths emerged in the autumn, 1882, leaving but 

 a small number of live cocoons for the year 1883, and these 

 were very likely the weakest ; at any rate, they were smaller 

 than the cocoons obtained in L^81. 



In 1883, the moths of the hybrid did not begin to emerge 

 till June 2nd, considerably later than in 1882, when they 

 commenced to emerge on April 23rd, and several of the co- 

 coons died. 



The moths, which kept on emerging till July, paired 

 with the same facility as in 1S82, but almost all the eggs 

 were unfertile. Ctut of a small quantity of fertile ova, I 

 obtained about eighty larvse, in all appearance very healthy, 

 which were placed on small oak trees iu my garden. These 

 oak, together with some other kind of trees, were under 

 one large frame-work covered partly with wire, partly nath 

 fish-netting. I made use of all the old materials I had iu 

 London for economy's sake, and I had bore, only one large 

 frame instead of three smaller ones, as I had in 1SS2, in 

 London. The hybrid larvie grew rapidly, without showing 

 any sign of disease, till they had reached for the most 

 part the third stage, when one day I found the fish-netting, 

 which must have been rotten, entirely torn from top to 

 bottom on one side of the frame, and all the larv?e had 

 disappeared, destroyed by birds, together with some other 

 species. The tearing of the net had evidently been the 

 work of cats, which I had frequently seen climbing up to 

 the top of the frame. Fish-netting is, therefore, of little 

 use. This fatal accident prevented a rearing and study 

 which would have been very interesting and important to 

 me, /'. e.. the preservation of the hybriil, or, if the worms 

 had the germ of disease in them, to watch and see how 

 long they would live in such a state. As I have before 

 mentioned, they looked remarkably strong and healthy. 



After this disaster, the fish-netting was mended, and 

 several yards of new wire-netting were added to the frame- 

 work, after which the worms of the few other species in 

 the trees were left unmolested by the sparrows and other 

 birds. 



Actias Selene — Of this species I had, in 1883, no co- 

 coons imported from India, but only about twenty cocoons 

 obtained from the rearings of 1883, and of these several 

 died. The moths emerged as follows : — June the 4th, one 

 male moth; on the 13th, one male; on the 17th, one male; 

 on the 19th, one male and one female, which paired on 

 the 21st, between 2 and 3-30 a.m. On the 22nd, one male ; 

 on the 23rd, one male; on the 25th, one male; on the 

 26th, one male; on the 27th, one female. On the 28th, I 

 obtained the second pairing. Oni the 28th, a third female 

 moth emerged, which paired on the 29th of June. On the 

 4th of July, a female moth emerged; on the 14th, one 

 male; and on the 7 th of August, the last moth, a female, 

 emerged. By referring to this list of births registered, it 

 will be seen that the first three female moths, which alone 

 had a chance, all paired, and this is the greatest success 

 I ever obtained with this species with respect to pairings, 

 but the same success did not attend the hatiching of the 

 larvK. 



The first female moth laid 255 eggs, which were very good, 

 and began to hatch on the 6th of July. The second female, 

 which was smaller, laid only 154; none of these I kept. 

 The third female, which was the finest and largest, laid 

 303 eggs, but none of the eggs I had kept of this last 

 brood hatt^hed, and this I attribute to a sud<len change of 

 temperature at the moment the larvre should have hatched; 

 but there may be some other cause unknown to me. Some 

 of the larvae of the first brood were reared in the hOnse 

 on walnut leaves, others on a pear-tree in the garden under 

 the netting. The larva- reared in the house readied their 

 last stage in a very short time; on the coutiary, thosn in 

 the .yard on were very slow, and did not begin to spin before 



the 11th of October, when I had to bring into the house 

 the few which were on the pear-tree in the garden. 



Attacus Atlas. — AVith a large tjuantity of Oeylon and a 

 few Himalaya Atlas cocoons, I had no better success pi 

 1883 than in 1882. The moths emerged from the 11th of 

 July to the 28th of September. As usual, a number of the 

 cocoons ditd, while others kept ahve for the following season 

 (1884). Only ten Ceylon and four Himalaya ^;/«.f moths 

 emerged at intervals, never giving any chance of obtaining 

 fertile ova. 



Two of the Himalaya Atlas moths, one female emerged 

 on the 4th of September, and one male on the 21st of the 

 same month, were very perfect and extremely beautiful, 

 both measuring over 10 inches in expanse of wings. These, 

 with a wonderful aberration of the genus Samia or Ftaty- 

 .9«?«^V^,anda large number of other specimens of silk-produc- 

 ing Bombyces and other lepidotera were exhibited on the 

 3rd of October, 1883, at a meeting of the Entomological 

 Society of London. Among these specimens was a series 

 of about fifteen J/y/i"^(rt moths, showing most of the various 

 shades of colour, from the bright golden yellow to the 

 darkest brown or grey. Reference will be made further 

 on to the extraordinary specimen of the genus Plaiysamia^ 

 which I consider as an aberration of Cecrc/pia. Besides these 

 specimens, I exhibited some of the living larvre of silk- 

 producers, which were still to be found at that time on 

 tlie trees in the garden, such as Telea jjolyphemus and 

 Hypei'chiria io. 



Aiither(Fa Jfyliita or Paphia. — The notes I took on this 

 species, the most important East Indian wild silkworm, cover 

 six pages of my note-book. Therein is registered the birth 

 of every moth, the pairings, &c., which it would be un- 

 necessary to reproduce at length. The first Mylltia moth 

 emerged on the 6th of June, the last on the 29th of October. 

 I had a very large number of cocoons, some of which did 

 nut hatch, and are still alive, even after having hybernated 

 twice. These cocoons came from four different parts — 

 Calcutta, Madras, Oeylon, and Bombay. Those from Madras, 

 only ten in number, had already hybernated during the 

 winter 1881-82, and had remained in perfect condition. Two 

 of these INIadras cocoons still remain aUve for the 3-ear 1884. 

 The first moth which emerged belonged to the Bombay 

 race ; then, from the 25th of June, Ceylon moths emerged, 

 and the first pairing was obtained during the night of the 

 2nd and 3rd of July, and a second pairing of the same race 

 took place on the 6th of July. The third pairing which 

 took place during the night of the 9th of July, was by 

 moths of the Bombay race; the fourth during the night 

 of the 11th, and ended at 10-30p.m. on the 12th of July, 

 was a cross between a female of the Bombay and a male 

 of the Oeylon race. The number of eggs obtained from these 

 four pairings was; — 78 by the first, 183 by the second, 135 

 by the third, and 128 by the fourth, a total of 524 eggs. 

 Later on, two more pairings were obtained, one from the 

 Gth to the 7th of August, between a male Ceylon and a 

 female Bombay; the sixth and last took place in the night 

 of the lyth and 20th of August, between two moths emerged 

 from the cocoons sent to me from Calcutta. I lately heard 

 that these cocoons sent from Calcutta had been collected 

 in Assam. The number of pairings, six only, is very small, 

 considering the large number of moths obtained from the 

 cocoons, and undoubtedly shows that the temperature was 

 not sufficiently high for this species. The eggs from the 

 last two pairings in August were obtained much too late 

 to be of any use in England for rearing; therefore I sent 

 them to some American correspondents, but as yet I have 

 not heard of the result. The eggs of the fii-st pairing (Oeylon 

 race), that of the 2nd and 3rd of July, began to hatch 

 on the 25th of July; those of the third pairing (Bombay 

 race), of the 9th of July, began to hatch on the 3rd of 

 August; and the eggs of the fourth pairing, a cross between 

 the Bombay and Oeylon race, which took place on the Uth 

 and 12th of July, began to hatch on the 4th of August. 

 The ova of the second pairing had all been distributed, 

 together with .some of the other three pairings, among 

 European and American correspondents, and I shall He glad 

 to hejxr of the result of their experiments. Though there 

 were great differences in the shades of colours in tho moths 

 of the differ, ut races, all the larva; were alike. The second 

 stage of the larv:o took place on the 9th of August, fifteen 

 days after they ]jad hatched; the thh-il stage commenced 

 on the 24th of August, and the fourth on the 10th Of 



