JUN 23 1893 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XXVL] JUNE, 1893. [No. 861. 



ON THREE HYBRID SILK-MOTHS, HYBRIDISED AND 



BRED IN NORTH AMERICA. * 



By John Watson. 



Just at present, when there is so much discussion going on 

 with regard to hybrids and hybridisation of insects both here 

 and in North America, I thought it not out of place to make a 

 few remarks on, and to exhibit, three hybrid moths which I have 

 received from my most esteemed correspondent, Miss Morton. 

 It seems to me, on calling to mind the list of hybrids which 

 have been produced by crossing representatives of the genera 

 Saturnia, Platysamia, Anthercea, and Actias, that the New World 

 entomologists are far ahead of those of the Old World in this 

 interesting and valuable branch of scientific research ; I say 

 valuable, because I think there is no more certain method of dis- 

 covering whether an insect is merely a variety of a species or a 

 true allied species, than by, where possible, crossing specimens of 

 the doubtful species ; this method would be to pair the supposed 

 variety and species together ; if they are two distinct species, and 

 a pairing was obtained and imagos resulted from the hybrid ova; 

 then, even supposing there was not in their progeny a male and 

 female out together to pair again, an examination, either micro- 

 scopical or otherwise, of the contents of the abdomen of a female 

 would, I fancy, conclusively prove, by the absence or presence 

 of eggs, the bona fides of the doubtful parents to rank as species 

 or varieties. I have examined the bodies of three female hybrids 

 in my collection (by relaxing and emptying the body-contents into 

 50 per cent, alcohol, macerating and staining in borax-carmine, 

 and mounting for microscopical examination), and in none of 

 these was there anything in the body I could by any stretch of 

 the imagination liken to the egg-tubes or oviducts which are so 

 plentiful in the bodies of female moths, even after they have 

 deposited all their ova. This is to my mind a very important 



* Read before the Lancashire & Cheshire Entomological Society, April 10th. 

 ENTOM. — JUNE, 1893. R 



