90 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Mori larvae would, T fancy, be but little, if at all, affected by 

 the dormant parasitic egg, and the silk spun by it not 

 deteriorated. But I find in another paragraph of the Report 

 that "the uji are sometimes {ihe italics dive mme) found in 

 cocoons of such good quality that they could only have been 

 produced by the healthiest worms." From this I infer that 

 the cocoons in which there is this parasite are generally 

 inferior in quality ; yet this inferiority could scarcely be 

 caused by an egg of a parasite being in the silk larva's 

 intestines. I should think that in all probability the egg 

 of the parasite is laid in the skin of the silk larva, and 

 that this hatches, and the parasite feeds in a larval form on 

 the silkworm. This would account for some infected silk- 

 worms spinning better cocoons than others ; for it will be 

 readily conceived that a silkworm which had been exempt 

 from the uji attack until nearly full-grown, would produce a 

 finer cocoon than one whose vitals had been preyed on from 

 its earliest stage of larvahood. The fact that the maggot 

 should be considered the final stage of the parasite shows an 

 ignorance of the rudiments of Entomology and a want of 

 reasoning; for if a fly lays an egg and the e^^ hatches, and 

 the larva issuing from it after a period dies, how would the 

 fly propagate its species ? 



The ravages committed by this uji make it important that 

 some remedy should be devised, and to attain this end a 

 practical entomologist should study the life-history both of 

 the silk larva and its parasite ; and when I find that in some 

 instances eighty-four per cent of the pupaE) are destroyed by 

 the uji, it would, I think, remunerate the silkworm rearers to 

 secure the services of an entomologist for the purposes above 

 stated. I feel pretty sure that the following means, if 

 adopted, would tend to diminish, if not exterminate, the 

 uji :— 



1. y\ll silkworms should be protected during the whole of 

 their lives by gauze: this might be easily managed by 

 covering the trays when against the walls of the rooms. 



2. By impressing upon the Japanese that the uji, as it 

 emerges from the silk cocoons, is not in its final stage, but 

 js about to turn to pupa ; and that means should be taken 

 to insure its death, either by boiling water or crushing. 



3. The silk larvae should be carefully inspected, and any 



