478 
ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
Coquerel has published (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 4® s^r. vi. pp. 341-344) a note 
on the silk-producing Bomhycidce of Madagascar, which he says belong to 
four species, namely, Bomhyx radama (Coq.), B. diego (Coq.), Borocera 
cajani (Vins.) = var. B. madayascariensis (Boisd.), and Bomhyx Jleuriotti 
(Gudr.). Of these species he figures the cf and $ oi Bomhyx radama {1. c. pi. 5. 
fig. 1) and Borocera madayascariemis, var. cajani (pi. 6. fig. 2) ; also the 
larva and cocoon of the latter species (pi. 6. figs. 2 & 3) and the large com- 
mon pouch containing cocoons of B. radama (pi. 6. fig. 1). 
Maurice Girard has communicated to the Entomological Society of France 
notes on the rearing of some silkworms (Annales, vi. pp. 427-434). He re- 
fers to experiments made by the Baroness Pages, in which hybrids were pro- 
duced between Attacus hauhinice (Gu6r.) from Senegal and the Indian A. 
arrinditty and to the progress made during the summer of 18G6, both with 
varieties of the common silkworm and with some of the newly introduced 
species. A cocoon of Attacus haxihinice has furnished as parasites numerous 
specimens of a Phasganophora or Conura. 
Balbiani describes experiments to prove that it is by the antennae that 
male Bombycidae (and probably other insects) are guided in their search for 
the females. Males of Sericaria moriy some with the antennae cut off, were 
placed in a box, which was afterwards covered with the lid of another box 
in which females had been kept. The perfect males became agitated, whilst 
the mutilated ones remained still. Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1866, p. xxxviii. 
Lay notices the production of large quantities of silk by wild silkworms 
near Che-foo, and its use by the Chinese in many stuffs called “ pongees.” 
lie calculates that 12,000 bales of the silk might be brought into the markets . 
annually. Proc. Ent. Soc. 1866, p. xxv. 
Girard communicates some notes by Sarell on his experiments in the in- 
troduction of new breeds of silkworms near Scutari. Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. 
1866, p. xi. 
On the breeding of Anther cea yama-rnayu in Holland notices were com- 
municated to the Dutch Entomological Society by De Poo van Westmaas, 
J. Backer, De Graaf, and Verloren. Tijdschr. voor Ent. 1866, pp. 24-35. 
Peports on the culture of the Japanese Silkworm {Anthercea yama-mayii) 
are published in the Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, 1866, pp. 67-86, from 
Bischoff at Munich, Stegmaier at Salzburg, Baumann and Stierlin at Bam- 
berg, and Boveri at Verona. The same journal contains abstracts of reports 
on the same subject from Silesia, Erlangen, Brandenburg, and Berlin, 1. c. 
pp. 86-93. 
B. yama-mai. E. Mack records the results of some experiments in rear- 
ing this species in Hungary. Verb, des Ver. f. Naturk. zu Presburg, viii. 
Sitzungsber. p. 60 (December 1865). The same author adds further remarks 
on the epidemic disease of this silkworm. Ibid. ix. Sitzungsber. p. 4, 1866. 
Alexander Wallace lias published (Ent. Trans. 3rd ser. v. 
pp. 185-245) an elaborate memoir on the Bomhyx cynthia and 
its culture in England in the open air. His experiments were 
made in the neighbourhood of (5olchester, where he planted on a 
railway-embankment about 3000 Ailanthus-ixe,e^y upon which 
the larvse were placed when half-grown. The author gives a 
full description of the insect in its various stages, iUustrated 
with figures of the egg and of the larva in three states (pi. 16), 
