9820 Entomological Society. 



of the exhibition, however, was occupied by matters connected with the production of 

 Bilk. An admirably arranged collection was shown by M. Jules Rieu, of Valreas, in 

 the department of Vaucluse, including the white and yellow cocoons of the Japanese 

 silk-worms, introduced into France in 1863, and extensively bred by M. Rieu ; greeu 

 cocoons also from Japan, introduced in the present year; silk spun from these various 

 cocoons; models of the frames and other materials used in the silk cultivation; and 

 specimens of the insects themselves iu the various stajjes of 4heir existence. 

 M. Gueriii-Meneville, M. H. Givelet and others exhibited numbers of the Bombyx 

 Cynthia, and of other worms produced by the crossing of the former with the Bomb>x 

 arrindia, feeding on the leaves of the Ailanthus, and also several chambers containing 

 cocoons and hundreds of enormous moths depositing their eggs. Others show products, 

 preparations and sketches of the Bombyx yamamai, a very large green worm that 

 feeds on the oak, and of many other new and curious species. But the Ailauthus 

 worm seems to have attracted the greatest attention, and its cultivation is rapidly 

 extending. M. Givelet, who published a report on the subject not long since, read a 

 paper at the exhibition, and jirtmiises a more complete account of the best method of 

 bringing this worm into cultivation on a large scale during the coming winter. This 

 gentleman commenced planting the Ailanthus at the Chateau of Flamboin in 1860, 

 and, after some misfortunes and disappointments, completely succeeded iii the 

 breeding and rearing of the worms. He reports that during tlie present season he 

 has collected about twenty thousand cocoons, and that about three times that number 

 are now on the tries in his plantation. The long continuance of hot weather had 

 greatly favoured the experiments made in the rearing of Bombyx Cynthia. In the 

 enclosure within the Jardin d'Acdimatalion, in the Bois de Boulogne, may be seen at 

 the present mimient a large number of these worms of the third generation of this 

 season, feeding in the open air on the Ailanthus, or spinning their cocoons. The 

 creatures are of great size, and seem to be in perfectly healthy condition. The 

 cocoons are generally formed at the extreme eud of the branches, or rather tif the 

 leaves, for the Aiianihus has long compound leaves, with many leaflets, like the ash, 

 where no bird, however light, could rust and make a meal of the occupant, and the 

 worms take the curious precaution, before commencing the cocoon, to attach several 

 threads of their web to the leaf-stalk as hif;h as the third or fourth leaflet, so that, if 

 that on which the cocoon is fixed were to be broken from its stalk, it would still be 

 held pendant by these stay-threads. The Museum of Natural History at the Jardin 

 des Plautes, contributed a tine collection of insects, with specimens of timber and 

 other substances which have suffered from their ravages; also some remarkably large 

 specimens of lobsters and crayfish from American waters. Another remarkable 

 collection of insects is from Mr. T. Glover, the entomologist attached to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington. M. E. Mocquerys, of Evreux, has an admirable 

 exhibition of coleopterous and other insects which feed on the vine, cereals and other 

 industrial plants. Ur. Eugene Robert contributed a series of sections of trees ravaged 

 by xylophagous insects, together with illustrations of the methods which have been 

 a(l()j)ted by the authorities of Paris and other places, under his superintendence, for 

 their destruction. There were other collections of more or less importance, and, 

 amongst the curiosities of the exhibition, a landscape produced entirely by the 

 arrangement of various coloured beetles. Apparatus and powders for getting rid of 

 certain classes of noxious insects were nninerous in the exhibition, amongst which, 

 judging from the number of medals and awards granted to the discoverer, the powder 



