28 
no possible application. This prevalence of beauty, seemingly 
without. any relation to utility or advantage, suggests a view 
of intelligent design quite foreign to Mr. Darwin’s principle of 
mere natural selection. 
May 26th. 
President Newberry in the chair. Nine members present. 
Among a number of specimens brought in for exhibition ~ 
and discussion by those present, 
Mr. WILBUR showed a large moth which he had lately 
raised from a cocoon. 
Prof. D. S. Martin said that this insect was the newly 
introduced Japanese silk-moth, Saturnia Cynthia, and spoke 
of the persevering efforts of an associate of the Society, Mr. 
John Akhurst, of Brooklyn, carried on through several years 
past, to naturalize this species, and to ascertain how far its 
cocoons are capable of being made the basis of silk produc- 
tion. Mr. Akhurst had proved abundantly that the insect 
thrives in our climate; and indeed it has already escaped 
from cultivation on his premises, and is spreading spontane- 
ously into the streets and gardens of Brooklyn.* Its food- 
* Mr. Akhurst has ascertained that two broods are produced each 
year; the first hatching in the early summer, and after reaching matu- 
rity, laying their eggs, which hatch very soon, and produce the late 
summer brood in time to pass through all their changes, and lay their 
eggs for the following year, before the close of the scason. This last . 
fact is one of much importance; as any failure of the second brood to 
lay their eggs in due time, would prove a serious bar to their success- 
ful propagation. 
In the early part of the summer, Mr. Akhurst placed a hundred 
young larve upon a cluster of small ailanthus trees in the outskirts of 
Brooklyn. After a long and cold storm, he visited the place and 
searched for the worms. None of them had been beaten off or injured, 
but all were found securely lodged underneath the leaves of the trees. 
This experiment was a pretty thorough test of the hardy constitution 
of the insect, and its adaptation to our climate. 
