LEP1D0PTERA. 391 



Mr. Hodgson again says : — " With regard to the distribution of 

 the species, I apprehend that Mr. Frith is mistaken in supposing it 

 does or can occur in climates like that of Darjeeling; forlnot only never 

 heard of the species here, but have failed in an experiment to rear it, 

 which was carefully conducted under favourable circumstances, from 

 cocoons got in the Saul forest by Mechis in my service, who are 

 habituated to rearing silkworms. Gentlemen who make collections 

 in this quarter are apt to blend whatever they procure from the Tarai 

 forest, and lower hills, and from the mountains above them ; and I 

 conjecture that Mr. Frith's specimens of Antliercea Paphia, said to 

 come from Darjeeling and Cherra Poonjee, were really obtained in the 

 low lands beneath those places. I notice this point because of the 

 numerous and important mistakes relative to the geographic distri- 

 bution of zoological and botanical species which have thus been 

 propagated. For example, Mr. Ogilby was led in this manner to 

 suppose an otine bird (PJupoclotis hengalensis) an inhabitant of these 

 vast and precipitous and heavily-wooded mountains, and to name the 

 species Hemalayensis, though it be really as little capable of dwelling 

 in such a habitat, as is, I apprehend, the Anth. PapJda, or, more gene- 

 rally, any species of silkworm whatever. Silkworms abound south 

 and east, upon or near the level of the plains ; but I doubt if they pass 

 the limits of Bengal in a north-westerly direction, even upon the 

 plains ; and, so far as I know, the Oosi river is their limit in that 

 direction ; nor do I believe they are ever found tame or wild at ele- 

 vations materially above the plain level in Bengal or in Hindostan. 

 In the Saul forest they may pass up towards the north-west as far 

 as that forest extends, or to Hurdwar. But the Saul forest is hardly 

 elevated at all above the level of the adjacent plain ; and Cherra at 

 4,000 and Darjeeling at 7,000 differ toto ccelo in characteristic pro- 



with a hard brown spine for the purpose of dividing the threads, likewise discharges 

 a moistening liquid ; and although, as in Satwrnia [i. e. A<nthercea~\ it is said to 

 have no mouth, yet it is, nevertheless, from ilie mouth, or the place where it should 

 be, that the solvent is discharged. The mouth is an imperfect mouth only, and is 

 not organized for the reception of nourishment, although sufficiently perfect, it 

 would appear, to secrete the liquid with which the threads are moistened. Wheu 

 the agglutinizing matter is thus dissolved, the threads are easily separated by the 

 wing-spines, and an opening afforded for the egress of the moth. I have this 

 season watched this process in no fewer than two hundred specimens of Actias 

 Selene, and can answer for there being no mistake about the matter, a drop of the 

 clear colourless liquid often remaining upon the tuft of hair or down on the fore- 

 head between the eyes, and which tuft appears to be used as a brush for the appli- 

 cation of the solvent to the threads of the cocoon." 

 VOL. 11, 3 E 



