214 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
Chap. XIII. 
and beautiful Longicorns , a Spondylus allied to a 
species found in France and Germany, and in- 
teresting on that account ; also several other 
coleoptera much resembling species found in 
England, and two or three species identical with 
English ones. Besides there is a most beautiful 
and apparently new butterfly, a species of Apatura 
or an allied genus, of which the beautiful A. Iris 
(Purple Emperor) is found in England ; some other 
butterflies almost identical with our own; and 
others resembling those found in the north and 
south of China. Many of the insects have a great 
resemblance to those found in China, and some are 
identical, including Dynastes dichotoma .” 
One afternoon about this time I came upon a 
group of countrymen, sitting under the shade of 
some trees, busily engaged in taking a kind of 
silk or gut from a large species of caterpillar. 
The animal was fully four inches long, its upper 
side was of a lively green colour, while the under 
was white and covered with long white hairs. It 
feeds upon the leaves of a species of chesnut 
( Castanea japonica) very common on all the hill- 
sides in this part of Japan. In the baskets con- 
taining the worms were a quantity of these 
leaves, which, judging from the rapid manner 
in which they were being eaten up, must be 
very palatable. But the curious part of the 
business remains to be told. These worms are 
not allowed to come to maturity, and then spin 
cocoons like the common silkworm, but each 
