322 Captain T. Hutton’s Characters of 
the antenne are likewise much longer than in the figure, which, 
taking it all in all, is very inaccurate. 
In order if possible to reclaim this species and reduce it to a 
state of domestication, I succeeded in 1859 in obtaining a reci- 
procal cross between it and the Cashmere worm. In this experi- 
ment the female wild moth was coupled with the male B. Mor, 
and the female B. Mori with the male B. Huttoni; the coupling of 
the latter was effected with the greatest difficulty, and the few 
eggs obtained were all unprolific; this always proved to be the 
case in repeated trials. With regard to the other attempt, the 
difficulty was not so great, the domestic males eagerly sought the 
wild females ; the latter, however, exhibited an unmistakable dis- 
like of such pigmy sweethearts, though a few coupled and de- 
posited eggs. Still very few of these were prolific, and the cater- 
pillars produced from them retained all the intractable habits of 
the wild stock, and were accordingly placed upon the trees, where 
in due time they spun their cocoons. But neither in the cater- 
pillar nor in the cocoon was there any perceptible difference from 
the wild race, and although some of these females were again 
crossed by hybrid males, the progeny was still to all intents and 
purposes as decidedly B. Huttoni as at first. 
From the refusal of the wild males to couple, and from the 
great difficulty experienced in inducing the females to allow the 
domestic males to approach, it may be said that a generic division 
would be justifiable ; yet a certain coupling did take place and the 
progeny was fertile, although the strength and health of the wild 
race completely outweighed the influence of the degenerated 
domestic stock. 
It was with a view to the eventual cultivation of the silk of this 
species that, after a lengthened correspondence, the Government 
of India in 1858 consented to the formation of a mulberry plan- 
tation at Mussooree under my superintendence, but having fully 
satisfied myself in the course of the second year, that from the 
intractable nature of the worm it would be impossible to domes- 
ticate it, the Government was only too glad to foreclose the ex- 
periment, while I having purchased the only tract of land suitable 
and available for the experiment, was left to ‘‘pay the piper’ on 
the plea that the purchase had never been ordered ! 
8. Bomsyx Bencatrensis, Hutton. 
The Wild Bengal Silkworm. (PI. XIX. fig. 5.) 
This species has apparently become exceedingly rare, if not 
extinct, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, where it feeds on the 
