REARING THE TUSSER SILKWORM. 1138 
My method was to put the females into a box previously 
lined with paper, the top part being open. I treated them in 
three different manners. In the first box, measuring inwardly 
about 18 X 15 X 6 inches, I put six females; I left these moths 
undisturbed till they died on the fifth day, after laying their eggs 
at pleasure. ‘The result was that the eggs produced about one- 
third of good strong worms, then about half of the remainder gave 
most weak and sickly ones; and out of what was left many eggs 
never hatched, and a number of worms were hardly able to creep 
out of the eggs, and died. In the second box I doubled the 
number of females, which were still far from being crowded. I 
took up the eggs which were laid the first twenty-four hours, and 
every worm hatched; some, however, being sickly. This proved 
to me clearly that the sooner the eggs were laid the better; my 
guide had also told me so, and the following is the method I 
employed. It is well known that, when laying, the moths spin 
round and round, flapping their wings all the time, and when at 
a standstill they can be forced to renew the spinning round 
and round and laying, by simply touching them with the finger. 
The third box I purposely overcrowded with moths, calculating 
that amongst such a number there would at least be a few that 
would always be laying, and when doing so they would touch the 
adjoining moths, which would commence spinning afresh, and 
naturally cause the undisturbed ones to do the same, so that all 
the eggs would be laid within a short time, which is most 
desirable. 
Next morning, that is twelve hours after, I removed these 
moths into another box, which we will call No. 4, and allowed 
them to remain unmolested for twelve hours more, keeping those 
eggs separately ; and then again removed them to another one, 
which we will call No.5. The eggs which were laid in box 
No. 3 gave good worms, and all hatched. In No. 4 box there 
were hardly any eggs, which gave indifferent kind of caterpillars. 
In box No. 5 there were but few eggs; many, as usual, did not 
hatch at all; others were not worth keeping. In experiment 
No. 3 the moths died in three days, while in Nos. 1 and 2 box 
they lived up to five days. Each female lays from 350 to 
400 eggs, 
Before going any further I shall describe how the field 
covered with trees, on which the worms feed, is prepared in the 
ENTOM.—mnaAy, 1886. . Q 
