Entomological Society. 9821 



produced from the flowers of the Pyrethrum Willemoti seems to hold the highest 

 place. It appears that the flowers of various plants of this family are extensively 

 used iu Persia, Armenia and other countries for like purposes. The Persian powder 

 is said to be composed chiefly of the flowers of the Pyrethrum carneum, while the 

 Armenians prefer the Pyrethrum roseum." 



Dr. Alexander Wallace exhibited living specimens of Bomhyx Cynthia in all its 

 stages, — eggs, larvae in four successive stages, cocoons and imago, — bred by hiiu 

 during the present year; also a branch of the Ailanthus glandulosa, having attached 

 it 10 a paper cot containing eggs, to illustrate the mode in which the eggs were 

 placed on the living tree out of doors the evening before hatching out. He also 

 exhibited the mode of keeping the cocoons during the winter, strung up in cliaplets of 

 fifty each ; the perforated zinc cylinders in which the moths were retained for copula- 

 tion and the laying of eggs; the method of gathering and hatching out the eggs; and 

 specimens of the silken thread which the larva before spinning the cocoon wove from 

 the foundation of the cocoon along the leaf-stalk to the bough, so that though the leaf- 

 stalk in winter became detached from the bough the cocoon would siill remain 

 suspended instead of falling to the ground. Specimens of the silk obtained both by 

 carding and winding were also shown, and several hundreds of the cocoon and imago 

 were distributed amongst the Members present. Dr. Wallace believed he was the 

 first ])erson in England who had attempted to rear the Bombyx Cynlhia on an 

 extended scale out of doors without any protection ; Lady Doroihy Nevill was the first 

 iu this country to rear the species successfully, but this was done under ihe protection 

 of nets; he was under great obligation to Lady Dorothy for having in the first 

 instance sup])lied him with eggs, and with specimens of the Ailanthus; he had, in 

 March, 1864, planted out by the side of a railway (see Zool. 9143) 3000 Ailanthus 

 trees, which were then two years old ; some died owing to the prolonged drought in 

 spring, and during that year their growth was scanty; but in 1865 their growth had 

 been very rapid, shoots six feet long and an inch in diameter having been put forth 

 by May: the soil was a close loam. He had made another small plantation in his 

 garden for the purpose of observation and to serve as a nursery ; on this he had placed 

 18,678 eggs, which were laid between the 1st and 22nd of July ; they were laid in the 

 interstices or perforations of the zinc cages, rubbed off" upon blotting-paper, and a 

 glass placed over them ; the paper could be moistened if necessary ; in twelve or four- 

 teen days, according to the greater or less heat, the eggs hatched, prior to which, how- 

 ever, batches of them were pinned in paper cots or bags on the trees in the nursery: 

 once established on the trees, they grew continuously, and when the larvae were 

 about half-grown they were transferred to the trees in the larger plantation, and 

 distributed over them; from these he had, in September last, harvested 5318 cocoons, 

 very few of which were ichneumonized. No larvEE were observed to be eaten by birds, 

 though sparrows were abundant, and were seen to pick ofi" the Aphides from cabbages 

 growing under the Ailanthus trees ; he had lost about 200 by disease; but the greatest 

 destruction was in the nursery during the lirst two changes, when spiders, lady-birds, 

 earwigs and Carabi thinned their numbers to some extent; in 1864 wasps were ob- 

 served to carry off" the young larvae, and likewise anls; there appeared also to be a 

 parasitic fly (Tachina), and tom-tits were destructive to the larvae. The growth of the 

 tree was most surprising, and after the leaves had been entirely consumed by the silk- 

 worms, another growth of foliage was euiitted sufficient to nourish a second brood of 



