INSECTA. 605 
Boisduval regards Antlieraea yama-mai and A. pernyi as climatal varieties 
of A. mylitta. Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1864, p. 16. 
Van Westmaas (Tijdschrift voorEntom. vii. pp. 75-110) describes the first 
attempts at breeding Anther (Ba yama-mai (Gu€r.) in Holland, and gives a full 
description, illustrated with good figures (pi. 4-6) of the varieties of the per- 
fect insect, of the larva in its different stages of growth, and of the pupa and 
cocoon. 
Cornalia (Atti della Soc. Ital. vol. vi. p. 35) has given a notice of some of 
the attempts made at the cultivation of Anthercea yama-mai in the south of 
Europe, and of some tissues made with its silk. 
Beavan gives an account of the breeding of the Tusseh Silkworm {Anthercea 
paphia) in Bengal, with a description of the larva in its several states, and a 
list of the plants on which the larva feeds. Proc. Ent. Soc. London, 1864, 
pp. 40-43. 
Girard has published a note on the Dipterous parasites of the common Silk- 
worm (Sericaria mart) and the Silkworm of the Ailajitus (Anthera;a cynthia). 
Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 4® s^r. tom. iv. pp. 165-167. 
Hutton (Trans. Ent. Soc. pp. 143-173) attributes the prevalence of mus- 
cardine and other diseases among Silkworms to the combined effects of bad 
and scanty food, deficiency of light and ventilation, too high a temperatur e 
and constant interbreeding. The same effects, he believes, "have been pro- 
duced in all parts of the world where silk is cultivated. Ho refers to the 
occasional occurrence of a few dark, brindled larvae among the ordinary pale 
Silkworms, from which he inferred that the original colour of the caterpillar 
was dark, and that the paleness of the ordinary Silkworms is due to degeneracy. 
By selecting these dark larvae and breeding from the moths produced from 
them, the successive broods were found to become darker and more vigorous, 
and produced larger cocoons ; and in 1863 the eggs of the spring batch of 
moths began to hatch for a second brood in August, and continued hatching 
until the 23rd of September, when they were removed to a lower temperature 
to prevent the further exclusion of larvae. They again began to hatch, how- 
ever, at the beginning of December. The whole of these worms were of the 
dark kind, and the author attributes their increased vitality to their really 
constituting a reversion towards the original form of the species. Hence he 
recommends the cultivator of silk to separate his dark Silkworms from the 
rest of his stock, in the hope that, by breeding from them, he may in a few 
years replace the present unhealthy stock by a more vigorous brood. 
Notes on sericiculture, and on the introduction into France of new species 
of Silkworms, were communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris by 
Guerin-M^neville (see Coinptes Rendus, tome Iviii. pp. 742 &: 858, and tome 
lix. pp. 28 & 438), by Pinson (ibid, tome Iviii. p. 969), by Faivre (ibid, 
tome lix. p. 894), and by Mad. de Lapeyrouse (ibid. p. 1064). 
.Julian Hobson describes the economy of the Tusseh Silkworm (Saturnia 
mylitta). Zoologist, 1864, pp. 9257-9269. 
The ^ Technologist ’ contains a long paper On Sericiculture in Oudh,” by 
Dr. Bonavia (vol. iv. pp. 348-365) ; an article on the “ Silk-trade of Beyrout 
(/. c. pp. 648-550) ; an article on Silkworm Culture ” (vol. v. pp. 128-131), 
containing much condensed information with regard to the production of silk 
in vai’ious parts of the world; a reprint of Captain Hutton’s paper ^^On the 
