64 



hear that, of the eleven in that list, only five occur in Japan ; and, 

 therefore, that six are admitted on the authority of other ento- 

 mologists, who had made no special study of the genus ; of these, 

 T. Jiccabe is a Chinese species, ranging to India and Australia. It 

 is always of a deep chrome-yellow color in the males, the under 

 surface is frequently immaculate and never more heavily 'marked 

 than its near ally T .mariesii. T. mandarina occurs both in China 

 and Japan, and in the latter evidently crosses with T. anemone, as 

 that form does with T. mariesii, and here arises a distinct ques- 

 tion. Are we to reject the specific distinction of well-marked 

 forms, because when brought together, they will interbreed ? 

 There can be little doubt but that species, originally locally dis- 

 tinct, but the ranges of which have gradually been extended, are 

 sometimes fertile inter se, and also, that hybridization between 

 such species or " representative forms," carried on for many gen- 

 erations, produces a tendency to throw out gradations of form 

 between the original parents, even in the progeny from a single 

 batch of eggs. This is certainly the case with the silk-moths of 

 India and Japan, which, according to the statements made by 

 collectors, borne out by the collections sent home, are true to 

 locality, until brought together for sale in the market, and thus 

 subjected to the probability of hybridization. 



But to return to Fryer's list, T. sinensis is probably T. raJiel 

 of Fabricius and belongs to a totally different section of the genus 

 from T. Jieeabe. Mr. Elwes can never have read Lucas' descrip- 

 tion, or I cannot believe that even he, (notwithstanding his very 

 broad views respecting the variation of some species) would have 

 suggested the union of two forms so utterly dissimilar in all that 

 constitutes a specific difference. 



T. mariesii is, as I have said, the Japanese representative of 

 T. Jieeabe, but not, therefore the same species. T. anemone is a 

 form, perhaps, a species occurring rarely in China, and commonly 

 in Japan. T. comiexiva a7iel hybridadixo. admitted hybrid varieties. 

 T. (Bsiope is a N. E. Himalayan species or, perhaps, a race of T. 

 hecabe, about equally distinct to T. mariesii. T. hecabeoides, on 

 the other hand, is a N. E. Himalayan species, readily distinguish- 

 able, both from T. hecabe and the whole Japanese crew, by having 

 a brown transverse patch on the under surface of primaries 

 towards the apex. T. brenda is a very distinct and purely African 

 species, having a white female. It is entirely unlike any form 

 ever existing in Japan, and, lastly, T. sari belongs to a distinct 

 sub-section of the genus in which the under surface of the 

 primaries is marked with a large, square, apical brown patch. 

 Hitherto it has only come from Java, Malacca and Borneo. Its 

 female is characterized by the obliquely cut sinuation of the ex- 

 ternal border of primaries. T. sari is, in fact, nearly allied to T. 

 silJietana, but is not nearly related to T. Jiecabe. In conclusion, 

 I have no hesitancy in saying that if Mr. Pryer could see the 



