245 



stricted). To us it appears like a species belonging to a genus of 

 Drepanulidce *. 



Genus Cricula, Walker. 



CncM/a, Walker, List Lep, Het. B.M. pt. 5. p. 1186 (1855). 

 Euphranovy Herr.-Schaffer, Lep. Exot. Spec. Nov. p. 61 (1858). 



Antennae in male deeply bipectinated, in female minutely so. 

 Palpi pilose, very short. Proboscis short, distinct. Legs stout, 

 pilose ; tarsi short, thick ; hind tibiae with two minute apical spurs. 

 Abdomen short, thick. Wings broad ; fore-wing in the male slightly 

 convex along the costa, falcate at the tip, concave along the exterior 

 margin, inner angle rounded ; hind-wing shorter, rounded at the 

 angles. Female with the tip of fore-wing less falcate, and the exte- 

 rior margin nearly straight, 



1. Cricula TRiFENESTRATA (Heifer), 



Satwnia trifenestrata. Heifer, Journ. As. Soc. Beng, vi. p. 45 

 (1837) ; Herr.-Schaffer, Lep. Exot. Spec. Nov. ser. 1. pi. 17. f. 80 $ . 



Cricula ti'ifenestrata,^ sXkev, List Lep. Het. B.M. pt. 5. pp. 1 187, 

 1196; Moore, Catal. Lep. Mus. India House, ii. p. 384. 



Euphranor trifenestrata, Herr.-Schaffer, Lep. Exot. Spec. Nov. 

 p. 61 (1858). 



c? Saturnia suleika, Westwood, Cabinet Orient. Ent. p. 25. pi. 11. 

 f. 1 (1847). 



Anthertea suleika. Walker, List Lep. Het. B.M. pt. 5. p. 1252. 



* " Silk is entirely a gum or glutiROus substance," says Mr. F. Bashford. " I 

 have extracted it from many hundred worms in every stage. It is deposited in 

 both sides of the worm in two cylindrical shapes, doubled into three layers or 

 folds, thick in the middle, and tapering at both ends, but much more so at the 

 latter end, which accounts for the end of the cocoon giving a thread of a 

 finer and lighter colour. The gum, if instantly taken from the worm, may be 

 pressed and moulded into various shapes, and is very elastic : but very slight ex- 

 posure gives strength to it, and fixes the thread in the ratio of the cylinders, large 

 in the centre and tapering at the ends. If you expose it to a hot sun, the softer 

 and colouring gummy matter becomes brittle, and may be broken oflf or separated, 

 leaving the fixed gum in the shape of a thick white thread, strong (if not too 

 much exposed to the sun), and slightly elastic. At the time of spinning, the two 

 cylinders unite in one aperture, and the gummy matter is exuded by the worm 

 in one continued thread ; the more sticky nature of the soluble portion fixes the 

 thread to the twigs at first, and ultimately to each other in the formation of the 

 cocoon ; the motion of the head of the worm causes it to be drawn out from the 

 cylinders ; the peculiar nature of the worm's secretion and the motion of the 

 head enables it to elongate the silky gum, as it is drawn from the body in a soft 

 state, into a thread of considerable length ; exposure immediately hardens and 

 fixes it, but it can only be done by the aid of the outer stick (? sticky) and more 

 soluble gum. The two gums, or animal secretions, differ most materially : the 

 one must be boiled out with a solution of alkali, before the other will take a per- 

 fect dye ; but this solution does not injure the fixed gum or silk thread ; a more 

 powerful chemical is necessary to render that soluble ; it is soluble, and art may 

 make old silk dresses available some day for weaving and converting into a new 

 fabric, as our Yorkshire friends now do with old woollen cloth rags." — (Extracted 

 from the ' Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India,' 1857, 

 ix. p. 269.) 



