72 Indian Museum Notes. [Yol. II- 



described by Moore as Attacus taprobanis, which is said to be very com- 

 mon about Colombo, feeds upon cinnamon ( Thwaites). 



The eggs are oval in shape, about 0*08 of an iuch in diameter, in color 

 greenish white, with brownish purple clouding, which readily washes off. 

 They hatch about a week after being laid, and the caterpillars which 

 emerge are generally sluggish and solitary in their habits, seldom wan- 

 dering to any distance from their birthplace unless driven by scarcity of 

 food. When first hatched they are little dark colored creatures, about a 

 third of an inch in length, and covered with hairy tubercles; they grow 

 rapidly, however, and after the first molt become lighter in color and are 

 soon covered with a dense white flour-like secretion which accumulates 

 upon them after each molt. After passing some twenty days as cater- 

 pillars, and molting about five times, they are full grown and ready to 

 spin themselves up into their cocoons ; a very large proportion of them, 

 however, fall victims, before they reach this stage, to the ants, wasps, and 

 other foes which are always on the look-out for them. When the caterpillars 

 leave off feeding, preparatory to spinning, they are sometimes as much as 

 five inches in length by an inch in diameter, but they contract consider- 

 ably before actually commencing their cocoons. The cocoon is spun in the 

 usual manner and is so closely enveloped in the leaves of the food plant 

 that, when it is torn away, permanent impi*essions, showing the shape 

 and neuration of the leaves, are left upon the silk. The cocoon is 

 generally drab colored, and from two to three inches long, by an inch in 

 diameter] it is irregular in shape, with thin firm walls, which are scarcely 

 at all silky in appearance, except at the upper extremity where there is a 

 natural orifice for the exit of the moth. This orifice is formed, as in 

 the cocoons of other Saturniidse, by the convergence of a great number of 

 silken fibres, which are left ungummed and are therefore soft and flossy, 

 opposing an almost impenetrable hedge to any animal which tries to 

 force its way into the cocoon, but opening readily when pushed aside by 

 the moth which emerges from within. The moth thus effects its escape 

 with hardly any perceptible disarrangement of the fibres, which close 

 together again behind it. The stiff gummed parchment-like wall of the 

 cocoon passes upon one side of the orifice, so as to form a cord, which is 

 firmly wrapped around the twig from which the cocoon hangs, thus 

 securing it from mishap in case the leaves, in which it is wrapped, 

 become detached. The cocoon contains a large amount of thick strong 

 silk which cannot indeed be reeled easily enough to make it worth doing, 

 but which would have a considerable market value for carding and 

 spinning purposes, if l?rge quantities could be obtained; it is said that 

 some of these cocoons have been collected in Burma and exported to 

 England for this purpose, while attempts have also been made to domes- 

 ticate the insect in China ; but upon the whole experts seem to be agreed 



