1138 The Zoologist— March, 1868. 



recorded by Mr. Haliday in the Proc. Dublin Univ. Zool. Soc. 1855 : see Dublin 

 Nat. Hist. Review, vol. iii. p. 23, pi. i. 



Mr. Bond also exhibited a specimen of Bombyx Quercus, in which the colours of 

 the male and female were combined. 



Dr. Wallace exhibited two British-born specimens of the Japanese oak-feeding 

 Bombyx Yamamai, one reared by Mr. Gascoyne at Newark, the other by Mr. 

 Shoolbred at Wolverhampton ; and some eggs laid by Mr. Gascoyne's specimen. Also 

 specimens of Bombyx Pernyi, a Chinese oak-feeding species, which he hoped would 

 be naturalized in this country. Also, an imago and cocoon of Pachypusa effusa from 

 Graham's Town, an acacia-feeder, from which an attempt was being made in South 

 Africa to obtain silk, though the nature of the cocoon gave little promise of a favour- 

 able result. Dr. Wallace made some observations on the progress of sericiculture, as 

 well of mulberry silk as of Ailanthus silk, at the Cape of Good Hope and in Australia ; 

 and expressed his opinion that, although he found the air of the Eastern Counties of 

 England too dry for Bombyx Yamamai, that species would probably succeed belter in 

 the cool and moist climates of Ireland or Scotland. 



Dr. Gray communicated the following extract from a letter received by him from 

 Dr. George Bennett, dated "Sydney, 21 October, 1867":— 



"We have had, since the 14th of September, a wonderful flight of moths in Sydney 

 and the. vicinity, extending inland fourteen to twenty-five miles, and along the coast 

 in clouds, from Newcastle seventy-five miles north, to Kiama eighty-eight miles south 

 of Sydney : in those places they have swarmed in legions, proving a perfect pest. 

 They are of the family Noctuidae, and you may recollect that in my ' Wanderings 

 in New South Wales' vol. i. p. 205, I mentioned a moth of the genus Agrotis, 

 probably A. spina, which congregates in November, December and January, about 

 masses of granite on the Bugong range of mountains. The moth of which this year 

 we have such multitudes is, I consider, of the same genus as the Bugong, and is a 

 large dark-coloured insect, very prettily marked ; whether a new species I will leave 

 you to determine: it is recognized by the colonists as a well-known visitor, but rarely 

 in such multitudes and never to so wide an extent as during this time. Every bouse 

 and public building is infested with them, clinging in swarms to the corners, behind 

 shutters, or in any hollow space where they can congregate : this occurs to a greater 

 extent in the suburbs than in the city. On the first morning following their arrival 

 they occasioned great alarm and annoyance, for on opening the shutters the servants 

 were saluted by a copious shower of these strong-winged insects, which had crowded 

 on every part of the rooms and verandah, flying in legions in their faces with a 

 whining noise, and at the same time covering them with a quantity of dust or moth- 

 feathers. During the first few days of the plague, some persons had to call in the 

 assistance of their neighbours to help to clear away the hosts of these insects that had 

 congregated in their dwellings. They filled the church at Kiama, and for a time 

 prevented the performance of divine service; and bow they behaved in the church at 

 St. Leonards, on the north shore of Port Jackson, has been described by the Rev. W. 

 B. Clarke. It is difficult to form an opinion whence the moths came : on the doors 

 and windows being left open, the rooms were soon filled with multitudes, and what 

 with the "dust-feathers'' and a white fluid ejected by them, they stained and injured 

 the curtains and coverings of the furniture. About dusk they might be observed flying 



