]F>4 Silkworms in India. [Vol. I. 



from is quoted verbatim, from his report, foot-notes only being added 

 in cases where further information has been obtained : — 



" The eri worm (Attacus ricini) derives both its scientific and its vulgar name 

 from its attachment to the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis), called eri in Assam- 

 ese. It feeds also on the keseric (Heteropanax Jragrans), and there are several 

 other trees, as the gulancha ( Jatropha eurcas), the gomari (Gmelina arhorea), and 

 even it is said the common bogri or her tree (Zizyphus jujuba), which the worm can 

 thrive on in its later stages, if other food is not procurable in sufficient quantity. The 

 eri worm is a multivoltine, and is reared entirely indoors. The castor-oil plant grows 

 abundantly in the ryot's garden, springing up from dropped seed in every little patch 

 of unoccupied land around his house. The tending of the worms devolves principally 

 upon the women of the family, and goes on all the year round. As many as eight 

 broods can be obtained in twelve months, but the number actually reared never exceeds 

 five or six, and depends a good deal upon the quantity of food which chance has pro- 

 vided for the worms, since no care is taken to ensure a supply by planting out trees. 

 It is the autumn, winter, and spring broods spinning their cocoons in November, 

 February, and May respectively, which are chiefly destined for use, and of these the 

 spring cocoons are the most numerous, and yield the most silk. The broods of the 

 rainy months June to September are reared for the purpose of perpetuating the stock. 

 But both breeding and spinning, to a greater or less extent, go on all the year round. 

 Cocoons reserved for breeding are placed in a round basket woven of bamboo, with a 

 narrow mouth, and are hung up in the house out of the way of rats and insects. 

 After about fifteen days in the hot season, and 20 to 30 days in the colder months, the 

 moths emerge and are allowed to move about in the basket for four-and-twenty hours. 

 The females, distinguished by their larger body and broader and flatter abdomen, are 

 then tied to pieces of reed or ulu grass, by a ligature passing under the shoulder joint 

 of a pair of wings on one side of the body only, leaving the pair of wings on the other 

 side free. Ten moths will thus be tied to a piece of reed two feet long. The males, 

 though left at liberty, do not attempt to fly away, but remain with the females, to 

 which they have attached themselves, until the latter have laid their eggs, when the 

 males depart. If some of the females, as may easily happen for want of any criterion 

 of sex in the cocoon, are unprovided with males, they are exposed on the eaves of the 

 house in the evening, and are visited by any stray males that may be in the vicinity. 

 The female lays about 200 eggs in three days, and the life of the moth lasts a day or 

 two longer. 



" The eggs are picked off the straws, wrapped in a piece of cloth, and hnng np in 

 the house. The period of hatching varies with the season ; in the month of May, with 

 an average temperature of 83°, Fahrenheit it has been found not to exceed a week, but in 

 the winter it is about fifteen days, and in the months of medium temperature nine or ten 

 days is the usual term. When the eggs begin to hatch, the cloth is opened, and tender 

 leaves of the castor plant, previously crushed between the fingers to render them 

 still softer, are supplied to the young worms for food, and subsequently they are trans- 

 ferred to a bamboo tray suspended in a place of safety. As the worms grow stronger, 

 older leaves are given to them. Their supply of food is occasionally intercepted by 

 swarms of caterpillars 1 appearing on the castor-oil plant about the month of June 



1 Specimens of a caterpillar, reported on by Mr. Mackenzie as having proved most 

 destructive to castor-oil plants, used for rearing eri in Cachnr, have been forwarded to the 

 Indian Museum by Mr. It. S. Grcenshields, Officiating Director of Land Records and 

 Agriculture, Assam. They prove to belong to the species Achaea melicerte, a Noctues moth 

 which bas also been reported as destructive to castor-oil plants in Lower Bengal and 

 in Madras. See Indian Museum Notes, Vol. I, pp. 52 and 101. 



