r.OMBYCIDyE. 6 1 



with the costa entirely grey, and the hind margin tinged with 

 grey. Near the anal angle is the large eye-spot, centred with 

 bluish-brown and ringed with blue, and outside this with 

 black, from which a black dash proceeds towards the anal 

 angle. The head and thorax are coloured like the fore-wings ; 

 the latter has a deep brown mark on the back, and the 

 abdomen is brownish-grey. 



The larva is of a fine green on the back, with the sides and 

 belly tinged with blue. The sides are marked with a row of 

 oblique white stripes, and the stigmata are white, surrounded 

 with brown. The anal horn is blue. It feeds on poplar, apple, 

 sloe, &c. The pupa is dark brown, with deep red incisions. 

 It is not an uncommon insect in Britain, and the larv?e are 

 often found feeding on apple-trees in orchards, though they 

 are seldom sufficiently abundant to cause real damage. 



FAMILY XXVIIL BOMBYCID^.. 



In this family the frenulum is absent, the mouth -parts 

 rudimentary, and the antennae pectinated in both sexes. The 

 wings are broad, and the body generally stout. The hind 

 tibiae are armed with two small spurs. The larva, which feeds 

 on trees, is naked. It has a fleshy horn on the back, as in the 

 Sphi?igidt:e, and sometimes humps on some of the segments, 

 and the pupa is enclosed in a cocoon. 



This is a small family, but it far outweighs most of the other 

 Lepidoptera in importance, for it includes the typical Chinese 

 silkworm, that has now been naturalised in Europe for con- 

 siderably over a thousand years. It is curious, however, that 

 so few entomologists have recognised the close aflinity of 

 Bombyx 7?wri to the SpJiingidce on the one hand, and to 

 Eudromis versicolor on the other. Schrank, indeed, included 

 B. mori and B. versicolor in the same genus in 1802 ; 



