252 



and, as it seems to me, is exclusively confined to primitive forests on 

 the level, or near it^ of the plains. If, therefore, the species be 

 found wild in Bhaugulpore, Sylhet, Chittagong, or even Choto Nag- 

 pore, it is, I apprehend, confined in all those districts to the uncul- 

 tivated and forest tracts at the base of their respective hill ranges. 

 Further inquiry as to the food of the wild worm of the Saul forest 

 confirms my prior information, that this species feeds almost, if not 

 quite exclusively, on the leaves of Shorea robusta : and, as that 

 tree extends not westerly beyond Hurdwar, the habitat of Kussowlee 

 appears to me dubious, unless there be some mistake about the 

 species. 



"The above remarks," continues Mr. Hodgson, "may seem tire- 

 some : but those who are aware of the stress now laid on the geo- 

 graphic distribution of species, and of the numerous errors of fact 

 that have crept into the subject, as relates to this quarter, from the 

 source above adverted to, will probably deem otherwise. My atten- 

 tion was drawn to the subject of the distribution of silkworms in 

 India, with reference to the notices which the classics have left us 

 of the ancient trade of India with the west, in the Roman times par- 

 ticularly." 



To the above Mr. Frith replies : — " Regarding the geographical 

 distribution of the species, I am almost at a loss how to satisfy Mr. 

 Hodgson as to the circumstance of its being found at Darjeeling, 

 having received it from thence myself, from a party collecting for 

 me. Again, those from Cherra Poonjee were collected by persons 

 on the spot who are employed by me for the sole purpose of forming 

 entomological collections." 



Again, Mr. Hodgson writes : — " The wide diffusion of silkworms 

 throughout the continent of India in the plains seems clear, and is 

 a very interesting circumstance with reference to what we find in 

 the classics about the trade of India with Europe in the latter days 

 of Rome and thereafter. Mr. Taylor (Journal Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal) supposed that the chief ' things in commerce * in those days 

 were products of Assam only. But I had long before traced most 

 of them as indigenous products of all India extra Gangem, from 

 Suddiah to Hurdwar, leaving silk only as an apparent exception. It 

 need be no longer ; fine wild worms of various kinds being, it now 

 appears, found north-west all the way to the debouche of the Ganges 

 into the plains. So far, then, I agree with Mr. Frith. But I con- 

 fess myself still quite a sceptic as to the alleged fact of the silkworms 

 tenanting these mountains at elevations like that of Darjeeling." 



In answer to the above remarks by Messrs. Hodgson and Frith, 

 we quote the following by Captain Thomas Hutton : — 



" The Tusseh Moth {Satmmia paphia), which Mr. Frith says he 

 has procured from Mussooree and Kussowlee, — a statement doubted 

 by Mr. Hodgson, who confines the insect to the plains and base of 

 the hills, pointing out that collectors are in the habit of jumbhng 

 species from various localities into the same box, and calling them a 

 collection of Himalayan species — 



" Mr. Frith afterwards appeals to my letter to Mr. Westwood as 



