198 INSECTA. 
proboscis always very short, and merely rudimental; wings either 
extended and horizontal or tectiform, but the lower ones extending 
laterally beyond the others; antennz of the males entirely pectinated. 
The caterpillars live in the open air, and feed on the tender parts 
of plants. Most of them form a cocoon of pure silk. The margin 
of the abdominal annuli is not dentated in the chrysalis. 
We will form a first subgenus with those species in which the 
wings are extended and horizontal, or the Phalenz allacus of Lin- 
nus, retaining the name 
. SatrurniA, Schr. 
Given to it by M. Schrank, uniting with it the 7glix (Bombyx tau., 
Fab.) of Ochsenheimer. It comprises the largest species, the wings 
of which are frequently fenestrate, or marked with diaphanous spots. 
Such are the 
S. Atlas of China, the B. hesperida, B. cecropia, the B. luna, 
where the inferior wings are prolonged into a sort of tail, &c. 
The silk of two other species of the same division, the Bombyx 
mylitia of Vabricius, and the Phalena cynthia of Drury—Insect. 
II, vi, 2(1), has been employed in Bengal from time immemo- 
~ rial. I have satisfied myself by a Chinese MS. on this subject, 
sent tome by M. Huzard, that the caterpillars of these Bomby- 
cites were the wild silk-worms of China. I suspect that part of 
the silks, procured by the ancients in their maritime commerce 
with the inhabitants of India, proceeded from the silk of these 
caterpillars. 
But five species of this subgenus(2) are found in Europe. The 
most common is the 
S. pavonia major; B. pavonia major, Fab.; Rees., Insect. IV, 
xv, xvii. The largest species found in France.. It is five inches 
in width; wings extended; body brown, with a whitish spot at 
the anterior extremity of the thorax; wings round, sprinkled 
with grey; a large, black, ocellated spot, traversed by a trans- 
parent line, surrounded by an obscure fulvous circle, by a white 
semicircle, by a second that is reddish, and by another black 
circle, on the middle of each wing. 
The caterpillar, that lives on leaves of different binen is 
(1) Trans. Lin. Soc., Vil, p. 35,’ 
(2) Authors mention but four; a fifth has lately been discovered, now in the 
collection of M. Bois-Duval, that is perfectly distinet, 
