558 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



5. Hemileuca Main. — One brood of upwards of one hun- 

 dred, from an egg-belt fastened around a peach-twig. 

 Endeavoured to feed them on peacli-leaves, which were not 

 to their taste, until more than half liad died. Stinted the rest 

 as much as possible, until only thirty-two entered the ground. 

 Of these fifteen produced males and eight females, the rest 

 being yet chrysalides. 



6. Anisota ruhicunda. — About fifty larvae of all ages, of the 

 first brood and badly stinted, gave twenty-two chrysalides; 

 and these gave eleven females, seven males, — the rest dying. 

 Upwards of a hundred, hatched from eggs deposited in con- 

 finement by one of the above females, and likewise stinted, 

 gave fifty-six chrysalides. 



I watched these with a good deal of interest, as, from the 

 necessarily weakened condition of the parents, I expected a 

 large proportion of males ; but 1 was doomed to disappoint- 

 ment, as but three moths — two females, one male — issued on 

 the 21st and 22nd of May. In examining the remaining 

 chrysalides I find them all dead, and I cannot help thinking 

 that this excessive mortality is attributable to the stinting 

 process they endured as larvae, more than to any other cause, 

 as the earth containing them was kept in the best condition. 



While these experiments were being carried on I had many 

 hundreds of the common silkworm (Bombyx mori) feeding on 

 Osage orange (Madura aurantiaca), a great number of which 

 succeeded admirably out-doors under netting, and others in- 

 doors. Two of the lots in-doors were fed sparingly, and not 

 well cared for. No precise records were kept, and very many 

 died; but of the imagines obtained I recollect very well there 

 was no disproportionate number of males. 



On the whole, if these experiments indicate anything, they 

 indicate that where more males than females are obtained 

 from stinted larvae it is attributable to the fact that the 

 females, being largest and requiring most nourishment, 

 succumb most readily under such treatment; rather than 

 that the sexual characteristics are modified and determined 

 by such treatment. Mrs. Treat's facts are, in some res])ects, 

 remarkable, but, bearing in mind the influence of the condition 

 of the parents on the sex of the oflspring, it will not do to 

 draw conclusions too rashly ; for every experienced entomo- 

 logist knows that occasionally, in a particular brood of larvae, 



