NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 171 



outside the mill, to regale themselves on the mingled molasses and 

 water that drips from the waste-pipe." And p. 103, a propos of 

 Helwan : — " Hornets are abundant." 



In conclusion, the same indefatigable little insect (Calicodoma sicula, 

 above mentioned) has covered nearly all the ancient carving of the 

 hieroglyphics on the oldest obelisk in Egypt, that of Heliopolis (which 

 Joseph must often have gazed on, as his father-in-law was priest of its 

 temple), with the coating of its clay cells. — F. A. Walker, D.D. ; 

 Dun Mallard, Cricklewood. 



Notes on Silk-producing Lepidoptera. — A pairing of long duration 

 between Antheraa pernyi, male (Chinese oak silkworm), and A. mylitta, 

 female, of India, took place on May 12th, 1893. On the 13th, 125 

 eggs were laid during the night, and 91 on May 14th, a total of 210 

 eggs. After many years' experience, I always found that the pairings 

 of different species of Lepidoptera never had a good result unless the 

 species are closely allied, like A. pernyi and A. rolylei, or Platysamia 

 cecropia with P. yloveri or P. ceanolhi. However, the pairing above 

 mentioned gave me this time a hope that I should be able to rear a 

 hybrid pernyi- mylitta, but I was again disappointed. The ova were 

 all fertile, the larvae became fully developed, but they were unable to 

 cut the shell of the egg. I extracted about two dozen larvae from the 

 eggs, and all were alive and active. The head of the larva was like 

 that of pernyi and the body like that of mylitta. 



Rhodia fuyax. This most interesting Japanese species was bred 

 successfully, and for the first time, in 1895. The ova, which I had 

 received from Japan, began to hatch on May 1st. The larva, which is 

 easy to rear, feeds on various species of Salix, and, like Antheraa 

 yama-mai, it hybernates in the ovum state. One half of the larvae 

 (about fifteen) were reared in the house, the others on a sallow in the 

 garden. The larva? bred in the house commenced their cocoons on 

 July 1st, those bred in the garden about July 15th. A peculiarity of 

 the fugax larva is that it squeaks when touched, or even if it is slightly 

 disturbed. The cocoon, which has the same curious form as that of 

 the Indian R. newara, is of a most beautiful green. 



Hypercliiria janus. During the season of 1895 I received several 

 lots of pupae of this large Central American species. There were 

 thirty cocoons in the second lot, and I kept them all for the purpose 

 of rearing the larvae. They arrived on July 5th, and all the moths 

 emerged from July 7th to 14th, the number of females being larger 

 than that of the males. Four or five pairings took place, yet none of 

 the eggs of the various broods hatched, which was a very great 

 disappointment. I am unable to account for this extraordinary and 

 fatal result, the first of the kind I ever had witnessed, as the cocoons 

 and the moths, which were in splendid condition, had not suffered 

 from cold or any other cause, and the greatest care had been taken of 

 the couples. A singular fact also is that the moths, with one excep- 

 tion, laid only a very small number of their eggs. 



This year (1898) three Japanese silk-producers are being bred — 

 Caligula japonica, Rhodia fugax, and Antheraa yama-mai. These three 

 species are all in the ovum state during the winter. The eggs all 

 hatched in May.— Alfred Wailly ; Tudor Villa, Norbiton. 



