^0. 2. ] Wild Silk Insects of India. 87 



lacoocka tree^ but Hutton succeeded iu rearing it upon mulberry. In 

 the Indian Museum are moths and cocoons of this form from Gobind- 

 pur; also a moth which is thought to be Hutton^s type from Chota Nag= 

 pur; they are indistinguishable from moths of T, hengalensis from the 

 neighbourhood of Calcutta. There is also a carefully colored drawing 

 made by a Native artist in the Museum, of a full grown larva from 

 Gobiudpur, showing the yellow and brown markings and the prominent 

 spines which are supposed to be characteristic of T. huttoni. T. affinis, 

 therefore, may be looked upon as intermediate between T. hengalensis 

 and T. huttoni, and is consequently a variety of the latter. 



The figures of the moth and of the cocoon are from specimens in the 

 Museum Collection ; that of the larva is copied from a colored draw- 

 ing made by the Museum artist under the direction of Mr. Wood- 

 Mason; the coeoon is from a photograph taken by Mr. Wood-Mason. 



[4) Theophila sherwilli [=Bombyx shenoilli, Moore, Trans. Ent. Soe. 

 Lond. 3, II, p. 423, pi. XXII, fig. 1, 1864—66; also Hutton loc. cit., 

 p. 324j . — This form was described from a moth said to have been obtained 

 in the Eastern Himalayas ; nothing, however, has been recorded of its 

 habits or transforiiJations. The original figure and description of the 

 moth would answer completely to a large specimen of the variety T. hen- 

 galensis, with the exception of the black tip to the abdomen which T. 

 sherwilli is represented as possessing. In the absence, therefore, of fur- 

 ther information, this form may be looked upon as a somewhat excep- 

 tionally marked specimen of T. huttoni, var, hengalensis. 



Trilocha varians, Walker. Plate 15, fig. 5. 



This small species is common all over India and Ceylon ; it spins a 

 minute but compact cocoon of yellowish silk between the leaves of the 

 trees upon which it feeds. It is fairly common, but the cocoons are not 

 found in any large quantities together, and are far too small to make it 

 worth while to collect them individually. In Calcutta the moths are 

 often attrasted by lamps into houses in the cold weather and the larvae 

 have been reared in the Indian Museum upon the leaves of Bukool tree 

 (Mimusops elengi). According to Hutton (Tr. E. S. Ill, 2, p. 331, 1864-6), 

 Grote found it iu February and March in Calcutta feeding on Trophis 

 aspera, Ficus inclica, and Ficus religiosa, while in Madras Elliot found ifc 

 upon Ficus religiosa; and according to Moore (Lep. Ceyl. II, p. 136) 

 Thwaites found it in Ceylon upon Artocarpus iutegrifolia. Nothing fur- 

 ther seems to have been recorded of its life history, but from the fact of 

 the moths and larvae being found in the middle of the cold weather 

 it would seem likely to be a polyvoltine. 



The figures are from specimens reared in the Indian Museum. 



