266 



Lep. Het. B.M. pt. 5. p. 1218 ; Moore, Catal. Lep. Mus. Ind. House, 

 ii. p. 405. 



Var. Phalcena-attacus atlas, Cramer, Pap. Exot. i. p. 13. pi. 9. f. A. 

 Var. Saturnia silhetica, Heifer, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. vi. p. 41 

 (1837). 



Hab. China ; N. & S. India ; Ceylon ; Burmah ; Java. 



The larva and cocoon of this (the largest of all known Lepido- 

 pterous insects) are figured on plate 20. of vol. ii. of the Catal. of Lep. 

 Mus. India House, from the collection made by Dr. Horsfield in 

 Java. "The larva feeds on the Molokka {Phyllanthus emblica), 

 Kupu-gaja, &c, where it was abundant during December and 

 January." 



From the MS. Notes made by Lady Isabella Rose Gilbert in 1825, 

 we extract the following : — " A specimen (female) of this magnificent 

 moth was brought to me on the 4th September. On the following 

 morning she laid several pink-and-white eggs. On the 15th the 

 young caterpillars were hatched. Being uncertain what plant they 

 fed on, I placed them upon slips of different trees, viz. apple, peach, 

 plum, &c. The young caterpillars were black, with numerous white 

 spines ; as they grew larger and changed their skins, the spines be- 

 came covered with a kind of white powder, giving them a very de- 

 licate appearance, added to which the ground colour of the body, 

 since the first few days after they were hatched, had become a light 

 green. They always ate their skins after casting them. Those on the 

 apple tree grew to an enormous size, and on the 12th October one 

 of them began to prepare for its transformation, by bending back a 

 large leaf and enclosing itself in a web, which it completed on the 

 13th. On the 22nd June following the moth came out." 



It is said that the Chinese Tusseh silk is obtained from the cocoon 

 of this species. 



2. Attacus edwardsi, White. 



Attacus edwardsii, White, P.Z.S. (1859) p. 115. pi. 57 ; Moore, 

 Catal. Lep. Mus. Ind. House, ii. p. 406. 



Hab. Darjeeling. In Collection British Museum and India House. 



This species is distinguished from Attacus atlas " by its intensely 

 dark colour, especially on that band, bounded by angled and curved 

 white, defined lines, in which the fenestrae occur. This band is of a 

 dark blackish-brown, passing into a rich chestnut-brown above the 

 fenestrae of the upper wings and on their posterior margin ; the inner 

 margin of the lower wings is of this red-brown also ; the fenestrae 

 are not bounded by a margin of black scales as in Att. atlas, but by 

 ochreous-yellow squamuiation ; the part of the fenestra towards the 

 base of the wings, which in Att. atlas is curved convexly, is in Att. 

 edwardsii straight; the fenestra is longer, the white lines on the 

 wings, breaking up the brown so beautifully, are wider, and that 

 on the lower wing is less scalloped than in Att. atlas ; the margin 

 of the lower wing on the outside has two much-waved lines ; the inner 

 is yellow, with thirteen or fourteen undulations, continued on the 



