J 52 SATURNIA MYLITTA. 



Byer, but because they have greater plenty of Asseen 

 than Byer, and, moreover, trim and dress out plots 

 of Asseen on purpose for the worms. The princi- 

 pal difference between the above two species is, that 

 the natives retain a part of the Jarroo cocoons for 

 seed; these they hang out on the Asseen trees 

 when the proper season of the moth arrives ; when 

 the moths come out, the male insects invariably all 

 fly away, but the females remain on the trees. 

 These are not impregnated by the males bred along 

 with them, but, in ten or twelve hours, or perhaps 

 one, two, or three days, a flight of males arrive, 

 settle on the branches, and impregnate the females ; 

 by the bye, the hill people calculate good or ill for- 

 tune in proportion to the speedy or tardy arrival of 

 the stranger males. These insects die as soon as the 

 purposes of Nature are effected, and the females live 

 only to produce the eggs on the branches of the 

 trees, and then expire. In regard to the Bughy 

 species, they all take flight, females as well as 

 males, and hence the natives firmly believe that 

 they are all males, though I cannot see any physical 

 reason for supposing them so. I have frequently 

 endeavoured to detain the males of the Jarroo spe- 

 cies, and have kept them locked up in a box for that 

 purpose; but whether they did not like to make 

 free with their female relations, or from what other' 

 cause I know not, but I never could obtain a breed 

 in the domestic state, and the efforts of the male to 

 escape w r ere wonderful, and at last always effectual. 

 The accounts given by the natives of the distance to 



