269 



in acclimatizing in France a new silkworm from China, where it lives 

 on the varnish-tree {Ailanthxis glandulosus) . The species is the 

 true B. Cynthia of Drury (1/73), figured for the first time by Dau- 

 benton, jun., in his coloured plates, which were published between 

 1760 and 1765, and raised for some centuries in China, where its 

 silk clothes the people. Roxburgh, in 1804, supposed the E^-ia 

 which is raised in British India to be the same ; and this confusion 

 has continued till recently : so that the Eria (or ' Arrindy-arria,' as 

 it is called in Hindostan) has gone by the name of Saturnia cynthia. 

 The Ei'ia is a different species, living on the Ricinus. 



" The study of the species by Guerin-Meneville has brought to 

 light differences between the two in the cocoons and the habits of 

 the worms. The cocoons carded give an excellent flock of silk, 

 which is used in China and Bengal for very firm tissues. The colour 

 of the silk is a fine flax-grey ; and clothes made of it are not injured 

 by the rain, or oil, and wear long." — (From ' Silliman's Journal,' 

 Nov. 1858 ; vide Ann. N. H. Jan. 1859.) 



5. Attacus guerini, Moore. (Annulosa, PI. LXV. fig. 3.) 



Attacus guerini, Moore, Catal. Lep. Mus. Ind. House, ii. p. 409 

 (1858). 



May be distinguished from A. cynthia and A. ricini by its smaller 

 size and darker colour, the fore-wings having the two transverse 

 white lines joined together about the middle, the junction forming 

 a somewhat rounded spot ; and by its being without the lunate 

 vitreous streak, which is replaced by a small yellowish spot, which 

 spot, in some specimens, is nearly obsolete. Hind-wing with a small 

 rounded, yellowish, slightly vitreous spot. 



Expanse from 3^ to 3f inches. 



Hab. Bengal. In Museum, India House. 



The following remarks by M. Guerin-Meneville appeared in the 

 Annals of Nat. Hist. June 1859, entitled "Fertile Hybrids of two 

 species of SaturnicB " : — 



"Last year I succeeded in getting some females of J^omSya; cyn- 

 thia fecundated by males o( Bombyx arrindia *, and vice versa; and 

 the eggs laid by them produced caterpillars. These caterpillars, 

 reared last autumn, have shown nearly all the characters of B. 

 cynthia, which is the wider and more vigorous of the two species. 

 Their cocoons, although resembling a little those of B. arrindia by 

 their deeper colour, conducted themselves in the same manner as 

 those of B. cynthia ; that is to say, being kept in a similar tempera- 

 ture, the moths did not come out in the winter, as those of B. arrin- 

 dia constantly do. However, the influence of this latter species 

 has been felt from this first generation ; for, having placed some 

 hybrid cocoons in the reptile-room of the Museum, where the tem- 

 perature is never below 1 3° Centigrade, the moths came out at the 

 end of March, whilst those of B. cynthia proper, which I had placed 

 by their side for comparison, have not stirred yet. The moths pro- 



* I am in doubt as to what species is here indicated. 



