IN THE SILK-WORM MOTH. 103 



colour. The whole of the eggs appeared tense, and with a flat 

 depression in the middle ; eight reddish-brown eggs presented 

 themselves completely shrivelled. On the third strip there was 

 only a single light yellow 7 egg, all the rest had acquired a reddish- 

 brown colour. None of these eggs were dried and shrivelled, 

 but the central depression was very strongly sunken in a great 

 many of them, so that it may be supposed that these eggs will 

 very soon become dried up. The fourth strip of paper contained 

 only four slate-grey eggs ; all the rest of its eggs possessed a 

 reddish-brown colour; only eleven of them were completely 

 shrivelled, but others were more or less approaching desiccation. 

 On the fifth strip of paper, I could count thirty light yellow, 

 tense eggs ; all the rest were of a reddish-brown colour, and only a 

 few of these were dried up ; on the sixth strip there were only 

 four light yellow, tense eggs ; all the rest were reddish-brown, 

 amongst which only a few had undergone complete desiccation 

 instead of the central depression. The seventh strip of paper 

 possessed only reddish-brown eggs, of which fourteen were 

 already completely shrivelled ; but many others, to judge from 

 the deeply sunken central depression, were on the way to desic- 

 cation. Whether caterpillars will actually be developed from the 

 above-mentioned sixteen slate-grey eggs, which are still appa- 

 rently vitalizable, must be left to time to show. 



If these investigations and experiments have as yet furnished 

 no definite result, the reason of this certainly is, that they 

 have not been repeated often enough ; at any rate Partheno- 

 genesis is now firmly established in Bombyx Mori, but never- 

 theless the history of the reproduction of this moth merits to be 

 further traced in this direction, as this precise object offers 

 so many suitable and convenient data for observations and 

 experiments. 



