No. 3. ] Silkworms in India. 157 



TUSSER. 



Antheraa Mylitta, Drury. 

 [ Plate X. ] 



This insect, which is very variable in appearance and has been 

 described under a number of synonyms, 1 feeds on many different plants, 3 

 and is found in a wild state in jungle land up to four or five thousand 

 feet elevation 3 all over India : a closely allied or identical form is also 

 found in Ceylon. 4 The cocoons always command a price in the market, 

 and are accordingly collected by jungle tribes wherever sufficient quan- 

 tities can be found to be worth carriage, while the insect is regularly 

 cultivated on the Central Indian plateau for the production of silk. The 

 moths emerge from their cocoons in the beginning of the rains (June), 

 copulate and lay eggs ; from these eggs emerge caterpillars which become 

 full-fed and spin cocoons which produce moths about August; these 

 moths lay eggs which produce the worms of the second generation, and 

 these worms spin at the end of the rains (September), yielding the cocoons 

 which in their natural state remain on the trees throughout the winter 

 and produce moths in the commencement of the following rains (June). 



The cocoons, which are each attached to the food-plant by a silken 

 stem of singular strength and neatness, are hard and compact in struc- 

 ture, and contain a large amount of coarse, strong, buff-coloured silk, 

 inferior in brilliancy only to the silk of the Muga worm [Anthercea 

 assama). The cocoons can be reeled, but have first to be subjected to the 



1 Tusser = Anthercea mylitta (Hiibn. Walker, Moore, Aurivillius, Wardle, Boudot, 

 &c.) = Phalcena (Attacus) mylitta (Drury) = Attacus mylitta (Blanch) = Bombyx 

 mylitta (Fabr. and Oliv.) =■■ Phalaena paphia (Cramer and Roxburg) = Antheraa paphia 

 (Moore and Beavan) = Saturnia mylitta (Westw.) = Saturnia paphia (Heifer). For 

 details of the synonymy, see Catalogue of the Moths of India (Cotes and Swinhoe), p. 228, 

 Calcutta, 1889. Besides the above, which have long been admitted as identical, Huttou 

 described Anthercea nebulosa as a distinct form from Chota Nagpur and Central India : 

 Hutton's type specimen is in the Indian Museum, and is obviously only a dark-coloured 

 individual of the common tusser. 



2 Besides the trees — Shorea robust a (sal) and Terminalia tomentosa (saj) — on which the 

 tusser is usually reared, Wardle, in his Wild Silks of India, notices that the following are food- 

 plants : Rhizophora calceolaris, Terminalia alata glabra, Terminalia catappa, Tectona 

 grandis, Zizyphus jujuba, Bombax heptaphyllam, Careya sphcerica, Pentaptera tomentosa, 

 JPentaptera glabra, Ricinus communis, Cassia lanceolata, Lagerstromia indica, Carissa 

 carandas, Terminalia arjuna, and Ficus benjaminia ; while Cameron in his report for 1887-88 

 states that in Bangalore tusser has been found to feed on Dodonaa viscosa, Webera 

 corymbosa, Shorea talura, Terminalia arjuna, Anogeissus latifolia, Cipadessa fructuosa, 

 and Canthium didynum. 



3 The late Otto Moller noticed that he had never met with the species in Darjiling 

 (7,000 feet), though it is common at the foot of the Darjiling hills. 



.* Described by Aloore, in his Lepidoptera of Ceylon, London, 1882-83, under the name 

 of Anthercea cingalesa. 



