174 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



point. If a species and its variety, or two varieties of one 

 species, were paired, fertile progeny would be produced ; and if 

 a pair of specimens of this progeny would not pair, or even if two 

 did not emerge at the same time ; then again, the examination 

 of the body of a female would disclose ova in the oviducts, 

 proving that this female was one of the progeny of one species, 

 as it was fertile. Of course it is far more difficult to examine 

 and report on a male specimen, the spermatozoa being so very 

 difficult to determine under even advantageous conditions ; at 

 least I have found it so, and I can also speak for other fellow- 

 nrembers of the Manchester Microscopical Society. I think, 

 except amongst that grandest order of all the Flora, the Orchi- 

 dacese, in which I have produced seeds even amongst such widely 

 separated plants as allied genera, it is quite the rule for hybrids 

 to be unfertile ; I only know of one instance of a hybrid moth 

 laying ova; but whether even these could produce larvae, if fer- 

 tilized, I do not know aiid very much doubt. Miss Morton wrote 

 to me last autumn to saj^, in answer to a query of mine as to 

 whether she ever heard or knew of a hybrid moth depositing ova, 

 that she never had a hybrid to lay eggs, but a friend of hers did 

 have one which laid a few. This is, I think, an exception. There 

 is in France, and at one time rather extensively cultivated under 

 the name of the " Ailantine " moth, an insect which was reputed 

 to be a fertile hybrid between Attacus cynthia and A. ricini, and 

 which I have always viewed with a doubtful eye as to its being a 

 true hybrid. Apart from another source, I think it is now con- 

 clusively proved that ricini is merely the Burmese local poly- 

 ^oltine or many-brooded variety of the common cynthia. My 

 friend Mark L. Sykes, Esq., and myself have had a considerable 

 discussion over a number of specimens he bred from pupse sent 

 to him as ricini. They are certainly more like the figure of 

 ricini given in Mr. Wardle's ' Handbook of the Wild Silks of 

 India" than the ordinary cynthia, but slightly different from the 

 specimens of ricini in my collection ; however, I had collected 

 for me in Bengal a large number of ricini, which I understand 

 are bred there on Ricinus as the Eria or Arrindi moth, and sent 

 here in papers ; these differ considerably from either my other 

 Burmese specimens or Wardle's illustration, inasmuch as the 

 pink bar on the primaries is merged into the crescentic moon- 

 spot, whereas in cynthia they are separated, the pink bar being 

 nearer the edge of the wings. For the last three years Mr. 

 Sykes has been breeding the progeny of the original specimens on 

 privet, and now at the tliird generation it is very difficult to tell 

 which is cynthia or ricini, the pink bar has receded from the edge 

 of the wing and the position of the lunar spot has altered to that 

 of my imported ricini, and yet Mr. Sykes's original parents were 

 from the North American naturalised stock of the common cynthia, 

 the broods yearly showing the merging into ricini ; this I think 



