A FEW WORDS ABOUT MOTHS. 



JO. 1> C 



52. American Procris and Young. 



Silk culture is rapidly assuming importance in California, and 

 though the Chinese silk worm has not been successfully culti- 

 vated in the Eastern States, yet the American silk worm, Teleas 

 Polyphemus (see frontispiece, male; Fig. 54, larva; 55, pupa; 



56, cocoon), can, we are 

 assured by Mr. Trouvelot, 

 k made a source of profit. 



This is a s P lendid mem - 



ker f ^ ie g rou P f which 

 the gigantic A ttacus Atlas 

 of China is a type. It is 

 a large, fawn colored moth 

 with a tawny tinge ; the 

 caterpillar is pale green, 

 and is of the size indicated 

 in the cut. Mr. Trouvelot says that of the several kinds of silk 

 worms, the larva of the present species alone deserves atten- 

 tion. The cocoons 

 of Platysamia Ce- 

 cropia may be ren- 

 dered of some 

 commercial value, 

 as the silk can be 

 carded, but the 

 chief objection is 

 the difficulty of 

 raising the larva. 

 "The Polyphe- 

 mus worm spins 

 a strong, dense, 

 oval cocoon, 

 which is closed at 

 each end, while 

 the silk has a very 

 strong and glossy 

 fibre." Mr. Trou- 

 velot, from whose 53. Larvae of American Procris. 

 interesting account in the first volume of the "American Natu- 

 ralist" we quote, says that in 1865 " not less than a million could 

 be seen feeding in the open air upon bushes covered with a net ; 

 five acres of woodland were swarming with caterpillar life." 



