42 On the indigenous Silkworms of India. [Jan. 



Eggs, larva, and chrysalis, unknown. 

 Imago. Description. 



Head, projecting with a crest of yellow hairs. 



Eyes, middle-sized, light brown. 



Antenna, pectinated, about five lines broad, yellow. 



Palpi, four, not covering the inner vermilar, brownish colored. 



Mouth, hidden, without proboscis. 



Thorax, obovate, clothed in a velvet-like purplish fine hair of the 

 same color as the wings. 



Abdomen, very short, clothed with much finer and lighter hair than 

 the thorax. 



Legs, hairy, yellow, equal. 



Tarsi, moderately incurved. 



Wings, horizontal expanded, with strong ramifications of the central 

 muscles and tendons. — Superior pair of a cinnamon color. The end 

 much curved, the upper margin with a beautiful velvet-like grey belt. 

 Fan edges very much concave, the exterior extremity of a beautiful 

 rose color. The inferior margin darker yellow, with an undulating 

 narrow thread-like black line, losing itself towards the exterior ex- 

 tremity. In the centre is the eye, peculiar to all saturnise, with micace- 

 ous transparency, triangular, with the sharp angle towards the body, 

 another small oblong transparent point behind it, both with a dark 

 brownish margin round it. Inferior or second pair, in point of distribu- 

 tion of colors the same ; in form, much more convex, oblong. The hair 

 very thick and long towards the body, and more particularly towards 

 the point of insertion. The black line is not undulated, but follows 

 the shape of the wing, and has at each side of the projecting tendons 

 two black oblong spots, circumscribed with light yellow. 



Habitat in the Cassia mountains in Silhet and Dacca, where its 

 large cocoons are spun to silk. A particular description of the pro- 

 cess is wanted. 



5 . A still larger Saturnia, one of the greatest moths in existence, 

 measuring ten inches from the end of one wing to the other, observed 

 by J. W. Grant, Esq. in Chirra Punjee, seen in the possession of 

 the late Dr. James Clark. I have not yet seen the animal. 



6. Saturnia Paphia, Linn. Syst. Nat. 2, p. 809, 4. Phalana 

 Mylitta, Drury, vol. ii. t. 5, f. 1, Mar. Roxb. Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. 

 vii. p. 33. 



The Tusseh Silkworm. 



It is the most common in use of the native silkworms. The cloth 

 So commonly worn by Europeans also in this country, comes from 

 this species; J. W. Grant, Esq. had the kindness to procure me, in 



