32 
been brought — two from India, three from America, one from 
Japan, two from China, one from Australia, and two from French 
colonies. Amongst English entomologists, Dr. Wallace has 
devoted especial attention to this subject, and he will, I know, be 
most happy to give information to anyone wishing to take it uj?. 
My own experience has been but very limited. I find that 
Bombyx cynthia may readily be reared in common breeding cages. 
With the Japanese worm, Bombyx yamamai, I have not been so 
successful, as all my larva died last year, but I am trying it again 
this season, and hope to have better luck. It seems, however, to 
be much more delicate than Bombyx cynthia. Of Bombyx 
paphia, the insect which produces the Tusseh silk, I obtained a 
single female from six chrysalises sent from India in 1866. From 
this source I was of course unable to secure a brood, and a large 
number of chrysalises which I received the following year, were 
unfortunately injured on the passage, and therefore did not hatch. 
Independently of the stimulus afforded by the hope of adding a 
really useful number to our native fauna, these insects are so 
beautiful and interesting both in the larva and the perfect condition, 
that their study will amply repay the trouble bestowed upon them. 
Coming under this physiological section of my paper, there are so 
many subjects which I hope wiU engage the attention of members 
of this Society, that I can only enumerate two or three more. 
Intimately connected udth the breeding of insects are the obser- 
vations which have been made on the effects of different kinds of 
food in the larva state on the perfect insect, as for instance, the 
production, by feeding the larva' on certain plants, of dixi’k 
varieties of Amphydasis betularia, (the pepper moth,) and 
Arctia caja, (the tiger moth,) also the effect of heat and cold 
on the retardation or acceleration of the pupa stage, and the size 
of the perfect insect, of which the hot summer of 1868, afforded 
some remarkable instances. One occurred to myself. I captured 
a specimen of the common Pieris uapi, or green-veined white, so 
small, that at first sight I thought I had got some rare species. It 
measures only 1 inch 2 lines across the wings, whereas, the ordi- 
nary measurement of this insect is 1 inch 7, to 1 inch 1 1 lines. 
I observe, that several similar cases have been recorded lately, 
and are doubtless to be accounted for partly by insufiiciencj" of 
food for the larva owing to the drought, and partly from heat 
