60 



A FEW WORDS ABOUT MOTHS. 



American Procris and Yoiin, 



Silk culture is rapidly assuming Importance in California, and 

 though the Chinese silk worm has not been successfully culti- 

 vated in the Eastern States, yet the Ailiericau silk worm, Teleas 

 Polyphemus (see frontispiece, male; Fig. 54, larva; 55, pupa; 



56, cocoon), can, we are 

 assured by Mr. Trouvelot, 

 be made a source of profit. 

 This is a splendid mem- 

 ber of the group of which 

 the gigantic Attacus Atlas 

 of China is a type. It is 

 ^ 5 a large, fawn colored moth 

 \^^ with a tawny tinge; the 

 ^ caterpillar is pale green, 

 and is of the size indicated 

 in the cut. Mr. Trouvelot says that of the several kinds of silk 

 worms, the larva of the present species alone deserves atten- 

 tion. The cocoons 

 of Platysamia Ce- 

 cropia may be ren- 

 dered of some 

 commercial value, 

 as the silk can be 

 carded, but the 

 chief objection is 

 the difficulty of 

 liaising the larva. 

 "The Polyphe- 

 mus worm spins 

 a strong, deuse, 

 oval cocoon, 

 which is closed at 

 each end, while 

 the silk has a very 

 strong and glossy , 



librc." Mr. Trou- L,^.^ 



velot, from whose 53. Larvfe of American Procris. 



interesting account in the first volume of the "American Natu- 

 ralist" we quote, says that in 1865 " not less than a million could 

 be seen feeding in the open air upon bushes covered with a net ; 

 five acres of woodland were swarming with caterpillar life." 



