1854.] 



ROUGH NOTES ON CANADIAN SATURNINE. 



213 



is oblong, rounded at the ends, and very firm, capable of resisting 

 considerable pressure, and in all those examined, with the leaves 

 of one or other species of Prunus firmly attached. Its weight is 

 about eleven grains. This insect bears considerable resemblance 

 to the Saturnia Mylitta of India, one of those species which are 

 there cultivated for their silk, and which goes there by the name 

 of Tusseh silk. The natives are unable to rear these in confine- 

 ment, and trust to the eggs of wild individuals for their annual 

 supply of caterpillars. We may probably have the same difficulty 

 with the Canadian species. The writer, during the last summer, 

 raised a female, which, soon after leaving the cocoon, began lay- 

 ing unimpregnated eggs. He procured a male, which he placed 

 in the same box, but, though left together for three or four days, 

 no connection took place. Whether the female was exhausted 

 before the introduction of the male (though it still continued to 

 lay a few eggs), or whether, like the Indian species, they will not 

 breed in confinement, requires further experiment. The silk of 

 this species is of a lighter colour than either of the two following, 

 not very much darker than that of the Bombyx Mori. 



The Saturnia Cecropia is another of the silk-spinning moths. 

 This is the largest of the Canadian Lepidoptera, and in fact is 

 inferior in size to but few of the family. It varies from six to 

 seven inches in width. Its head is red, with a white collar between 

 it and the thorax, which, with the abdomen, is red. The latter 

 is marked with white transverse lines; the ground colour of the 

 ■wings is greyish brown ; the base of the anterior pair same colour 

 as the thorax, bounded anteriorly by a whitish band ; disk oblong, 

 rusty brown, with a kidney-shaped white spot margined with 

 black; beyond this, a brown wavy band bordered with black, the 

 rest of the wing shading down to light brown, with indented 

 black line. Near the tip is a black spot, with a crescentic line of 

 light blue; the colour of the posterior wing the same; the oblong 

 disk larger, and marked with the same white spot. The feru- 

 ginous band is broader, bordered with white, before which is a 

 transverse row of black spots, and a black transverse line. The 

 caterpillar is green, with several projecting points, which, as 

 well as the head and legs, are yellow. On each segment are 

 two small blue spots. It does not confine itself to one species of 

 plant for food. Abbot says it feeds on the wild American plum 

 (Prunus Pennsylvanica). Here the apple seems its favourite 

 food. It also feeds on a species of Spiraea, common on the 

 borders of swamps. The writer has taken a cocoon from a com- 

 mon garden plum, and from a bitter nut (Carya Amara) ; but 

 finding an occasional cocoon on a tree is not a proof that on that 

 tree the insect has fed, for the caterpillar will crawl some distance 

 occasionally for a convenient situation. An individual which, 

 for the ease of observation, was fed on one of the above men- 

 tioned low shrubby Spiraeas, when about to change into the pupa, 

 ascended a maple ten or fifteen feet from the plant on which it 

 was nourished. The cocoon is firmly attached to the under side 

 of a twig. It is three inches in length, and of a brown colour. 

 The outer layer is coarse and strong; the inner finer. It weighs 

 about seventeen grains. 



Saturnia Promethea is much more common than the preceding 

 two. The male insect is of a dark, chocolate brown, nearly black. 

 The margins of both wings are light brown, with a deeply indented 

 wavy black line. Near the apex of the anterior wing is a black 

 spot, with a semicircular blue marginonthe posterior wing. Within 

 the black line are several black spots. The female differs very 

 much from the male, so much so as to be hardly recognizable 

 as the same insect. The wings are not falcate, but rounded ; the 

 ■whole body of a reddish brown ; the colour of both wings is the 

 same; the interior half is a dark brown, the remainder much 

 lighter, with minute black specks, looking as if powdered, and a 



dark buff margin. On the anterior wing is an angular white spot. 

 The spot on the apex like that in the male. On the posterior 

 wing is a lunated white mark; on the hinder margin a wavy 

 line, within which are reddish brown spots. 



Peale describes the caterpillar as of a delicate green, with yel- 

 Jow feet. Each segment of the body, except the posterior, is 

 marked with six blue spots, from which arise small black tubercles. 

 In the second and third segments however, the two central 

 tubercles are replaced by club-like projections of a third of an 

 inch in length, and of a bright coral-red colour. The last seg- 

 ment is furnished with but few tubercles, the central one of which 

 is of the same clavate form as those on the anterior segments, 

 but of a yellow colour. When about to change into the pupa 

 state, it selects a leaf, the sides of which it draws together by 

 means of its silk, which it continues over the petiole to the branch, 

 round which it firmly fastens it. Within the leaf it then spins 

 its cocoon, and retires for the winter, during which time the leaf 

 and its footstalk wither, and are carried away by the blast, leav- 

 ing the cocoon hanging by its peduncle, and, to a casual glance, 

 looking like a withered leaf. On tearing off the outer layer 

 which originally lined the leaf, and which is very strong, an 

 oblong cocoon remains, about the size of that of the silk-worm, 

 of a dark brown colour, and very firm. The perfect insect appears 

 in June. This insect seems as indifferent in the choice of its 

 food as the last species. Abbot figures it on the Halesia Tetrap- 

 tera. It feeds on the spice-wood (Lauras Benzoin), the sassafras 

 (Laurus Sassafras), and the common wild cherry. In this part 

 of Canada the last is the favourite food. 



Another species, the Saturnia Luna, the most beautiful, though 

 not the largest of our native Saturnias, judging by analogy, would 

 also furnish silk ; but from its rarity, none of its cocoons have 

 come under observation. 



Of the insects above mentioned, their usefulness will probably 

 be in the order of their enumeration. The Saturnia Polyphemus, 

 though rarer, spins a considerable quantity of silk, and will be 

 most easily unwound. The Saturnia Cecropia, although the 

 largest and more frequent, at least in this locality, has coarse 

 silk, which will probably require to be torn in shreds and carded 

 as cotton or wool. Saturnia Promethea is by far the most com- 

 mon, but will probably be the most difficult to use, the cocoon 

 being very firmly glued together. 



Remarks on some Coincidences 1>c£iveen the Primitive 

 Antiquities of tlic Old and Mew ~World« 



By Professor Wilson, LL.D. University College, Toronto. 



In introducing this subject to the members of the Canadian 

 Institute, Professor Wilson observed : — 



It is well known to the students of antiquities, in so far as 

 such relics of the past are valuable to us for the purposes of 

 historical illustration, that the archaeologists of Europe have of 

 late years devoted much of their study to those remains which 

 pertain to epochs older than the classic ages, and to areas lying 

 beyond the ancient limits of Greece and Rome. In this study 

 of the primitive antiquities of Europe, Scandinavian and British 

 archaeologists have taken the foremost place, and the result has 

 been the disclosure of traces, throughout the North of Europe 

 and the British Isles, of the extremely rude and primitive arts 

 and sepulchral rites of a people occupying these areas long prior 



