132 



durch ein Beispiel zu bekräftigen: Innerhalb meines 

 Gartens liegt ein Stück Ackerland, das heuer zum 

 Teil mit rotem, zum Teil mit weissem Bastardklee 

 bestanden war. Letztere Futterpflanze zeichnet sich 

 durch Härte und wenig Süsse aus und wird daher 

 vom Vieh ungern gefressen. Nun habe ich wahr- 

 genommen, dass Weisslinge und andere helle Falter 

 den weissen Klee, der ihrer Färbung doch mehr 

 entspricht, vermeidend, sich ausschliesslich auf dem 

 roten tummelten und deshalb weithin sichtbar wa- 

 ren. Den besten Schutz bei etwaigen Nachstellungen 

 bietet, meines Bedünkens, den Pieriden ihr unstäter 

 Zickzackflug, durch welchen sie den in gerader Rich- 

 tung dahinschiessenden Vögeln am leichtesten ontgelien. 

 Zum Schlüsse möchte ich noch in Kürze des als 

 Trutz färbung geltenden Auges auf den Hinter- 

 flügeln des Abendpfauenauges (Sraerinthus ocellatus 

 L.) sowie der ebenfalls von Manchen als Schreck- 

 mittel aufgefassten Augenflecke bei Vanessa jo L. 

 gedenken. Jedesmal, wenn ich unbrauchbare, aber 

 noch lebende Exemplare dieser Arten zum Fenster 

 hinaussetzte, wurden sie ohne umstände von den 

 Hühnern oder auch dem auf Schmetterlinge so gie- 

 rigen Kleiber gepackt und verschlungen, während 

 sie tote Tiere nicht anrührten. Das anfängliche, 

 auch von mir bemerkte Stutzen der Hühner und 

 anderer Vögel beim Anblicke irgend eines neuen 

 Gegenstandes entspringt weniger der Furcht, als der 

 Vorsicht. Selbst beim Vorwerfen grösserer Brot- 

 stücke beäugeln sie diese zunächst von allen Seiten, 

 ehe sie zu fressen anfangen. 



Notes on Silk-producing Bombyces. 



North American Species. 



Callosamia promethea. As in previous years, I 

 received a large quantity of cocoons of this species, 

 and the moths emerged from the 23rd May to the 

 17thof July; in 1903, they emerged from the 26th 

 of June to the 16th of July. I note these dates to 

 Show that several species emerged much earlier in 

 1904 in consequence of the warmer weather. A 

 great many pairings were obtained, and the worms 

 placed in the open air on lilac trees thrived this year 

 very well, commencing the formation of the cocoons 

 on the 25th of September. 



Platysamia cecropia. Moths emerged this year 

 from the ISth of April tili about the end June, more 

 than a month earlier than in 1903. Many pairings 

 were obtained, but only a few larvse were reared, 

 and that for the purpose of comparing them with 



those of a hybrid species, ceanothi-cecropia, of which 

 I shall speak presently. 



Plati/samia ceanothi. This year 1904 I had 

 about 20 ceanothi live cocoons, the moths of which 

 emerged from the 22nd of May to the ISth of July. 

 No ceanothi pairings were obtained, but on the 5th 

 of June, a female ceanothi paired with a male ce- 

 cropia, and another similar pairiug took place on 

 the 22th of June ; 229 eggs were obtained from the 

 first pairing, and 228 from the second. On the 8th 

 of June a pairing took place between a male ceanothi 

 and a female cecropia, but the eggs obtained from 

 this pairing did not hatch. On the contrary, the 

 eggs from the two first pairings were not only fer- 

 tile, but they produced larvae which grevv and thri- 

 ved remarkably well, ünfortunately, I have a dis- 

 aster to record. The larv», when at the second 

 stage, were reared in the garden on branches of apple 

 trees and willows where, after growing to the third 

 and many to the end of the fourth stage, they were 

 all destroyed by earwigs, which had introduced 

 themselves in the muslin bags which I had placed 

 round the branches on which the larvaj were feeding. 



The larvse from the pairing of the 5th of Juue, 

 hatched from the 26th of June; those from the 

 pairing of the 22nd of June, hatched from the 6th 

 of July, six days earlier than the first, owing to the 

 higher temperature. 



I must mention that, when the female ceanothi 

 paired with the male cecropia moths, there were in the 

 cages male ceanothi, and I think, I now have cause 

 to believe that I should have had some success with 

 the pairings of ceanothi moths among themselves, if 

 the cages had been placed in the open air instead 

 of beiug left in a room; cecropia is a much stronger 

 species, which is not much affected by surroundiug 

 circumstances. 



The principal difference between the larvas of tbe 

 hybrid ceanothi-cecropia and those of cecropia was 

 that in the hybrid, in third and fourth stage, there 

 were six dorsal red spines instead of four as in 

 cecrojyia; some larvae, in fourth stage, had the dorsal 

 spines nearly of a uniform colour. From an earlier 

 report, it will be seen that the larvse of ceanothi 

 have, in the third stage, all the dorsal spines or. 

 tubercles of a golden yellow colour ; those of a hy- 

 brid between ceanothi and gloveri had orauge-red 

 dorsal spines. In other respects, the larvt-e of the 

 various species are very similar, being very closely allied. 

 (To be continued.) 



