138 Silkworms in India. [VoL I. 



" The motli. — With no jaws, and confined within the narrow space of the cocoon, 

 the moth finds some difficulty in escaping. For this purpose it is provided, in two 

 glands near the obsolete mouth, with a strongly alkaline liquid secretion, with which 

 it moistens the end of the cocoon and dissolves the hard gummy lining. 1 Then by a 

 forward and backward motion, the prisoner, with crimped and damp wings, gradually 

 forces its way out ; and the exit once effected, the wings soon expand and dry. The 

 silken threads are simply pushed aside, but enough of them get broken in the process 

 to render the cocoons from which the moths escape comparatively useless for reeling. 

 The moth is of cream colour, with more or less distinct brownish markings across the 

 wings. The males have broader antennae than the females, and may be by this 

 feature at once distinguished. Neither sex flies, but the male is more active than the 

 female, and may be easily recognized by a constant fluttering motion of the wings, 

 as well as the feature mentioned above. They couple soon after issuing, remaining 

 coupled during several hours, and in a short time after separation the female begins 

 depositing her eggs. 



" Hatching. — Under natural conditions the egg undergoes a partial development 

 as soon as laid, as shown by its changing colour. After oviposition, and until subjected 

 to cold, the eggs of the annual races are not capable of hatching out. This is the 

 rule, although we often find in a batch of annual eggs a few accidental livoltines 

 that batch some fifteen days after they are laid. The number, however, is very slight, 

 and it has been determined that the temperature to which they are submitted in no 

 way alters the result. During this period, which we call prehibernal, the eggs may 

 be kept at any ordinary temperature, however warm, but once they are submitted to 

 the cold of winter a certain change takes place in them, the nature of which has not 

 yet been determined, and their subsequent warming may then result in hatching . 

 When kept at a uniform low temperature, after having once been cooled, development 

 is imperceptible, and when afterwards exposed to the proper hatching conditions, the 

 resultant worms hatch out healthily. If possible, the temperature should never be 

 allowed to rise above 40° Fahrenheit, but may be allowed to sink below freezing point 

 without injury. Indeed eggs sent from one country to another are usually packed in 

 ice. 2 A great object should be to have them hatch uniformly, and this is best attained 

 by keeping together those laid at one and the same time, and by wintering them, in 

 cellars or hybernating boxes that are cool enough to prevent any embryonic develop- 

 ment. They should then, as soon as the leaves of their food plant have commenced to 

 put forth, be placed in trays and brought into a well aired room, where the temperature 

 averages about 75° Fahrenheit. If they have been wintered adhering to the cloth on 

 which they were laid, all that it is necessary to do is to spread this same cloth over 

 the bottom of the tray. It, on the contrary, they have been wintered in the loose con- 

 dition, they must be uniformly sifted or spi'ead over sheets of cloth or paper. The 

 temperature should be kept uniform, and a small stove in the hatching room will 

 prove very valuable in providing this uniformity. The heat of the room may be 

 increased about 2° each day, and if the eggs have been well kept back during the 

 winter, they will begin to hatch under such treatment on the fifth or sixth day. By 

 no means must the e^gs be exposed to the sun's rays, which would kill them in a very 

 short time. As the time of hatching approaches, the eggs grow lighter in colour, and 

 then, it' the weather be dry, the atmosphere must be kept moist artificially by sprinkling 



1 The Tusser moth is thought to secrete this solvent fluid in the alimentary tract, see 

 p. 158. 



2 For a further account of the conditions which regulate hatching see foot«note to p. 132. 



