14 
THE AILANTHUS SILKWORM. 
[Nature and Art, June 1, 1866. 
down upon the forehead, and the ears — which are sis 
inches and a half long, cross-banded with black and tipped 
with dark brown— are not seen above it, but are, in fact, 
rather lower. The stripes upon the sides are all more or 
less perfectly connected with the vertical line. Sometimes 
two or three of them, sometimes more, join the dorsal line 
upon the shoulder, but never far behind it ; the others either 
terminate before reaching it, or are curved backward over 
the flanks and rump till they merge into the horizontal 
stripes upon the thigh. Those on the shoulders open more 
or less, so as to form a beautiful series of triangles, in 
conjunction with the horizontal stripes of the fore leg. 
No two specimens are exactly alike, and the stripes even on 
the two sides of the same differ a little, so as to give a 
pleasing variety, without injuring the symmetry. Sometimes 
there are intermediate stripes of light brown* between the 
black ones, on the hind legs, above the hough. It has 
warts or callosities on the fore legs only. Mr. E. L. 
Layard, the eminent naturalist and curator of the museum 
in Gape Town, says: — “This new animal differs from 
E. montanus in the union of all the stripes with the 
medial one on the belly, and in wanting the gridiron 
pattern (as Baines calls it) on the rump ; also, from the 
other zebras, in having - the callosities on the legs far larger 
and more round ; in having shorter and more equine ears, 
six inches and a half high, instead of eleven and a half ; 
and in having - a shorter and more equine head and tail. 
The mane grows several inches down on the forehead, and 
stands up between the ears ; so that when seen in front it 
is far higher than they are. Chapman and Baines give 
measurements of several individuals. All who are com- 
petent to judge, from knowing the other species, will at 
once detect the difference. I am well convinced of them 
myself, and I wish to call the animal Equus Chapmanni, 
after its discoverer, Mr. James Chapman, who has done so 
much for African discovery, and has yet reaped no reward.” 
For my own part, I trust that the name proposed by Mr. 
Layard may be adopted by naturalists at home, and that 
when the journal of my friend — the result of nearly sixteen 
years’ research in Southern Africa — is published, he will at 
least reap the reward of being as well known to the public 
of this country as he deserves to be. 
THE AILANTHUS SILKWORM, AND ITS CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 
( Bombyx Cynthia.) 
By W. B, Tegetmeiek. 
T HE failure of the silk-crop in Europe, in consequence of 
the destruction of the silkworms by the peculiar dis- 
ease known as “La Gattine,” has directed the attention of 
several of the Continental governments to the introduction 
of new silkworms capable of supplying the place of the 
ordinary mulberry-feeding insect, the caterpillar of the 
Bombyx Mori. 
It is hardly necessary to inform the gentler portion of our 
readers that the price of silk, in consequence of the ravages 
of the disease, has of late years become nearly doubled : nor 
is the increased price to be wondered at, when we are in- 
formed that, in some of the countries in the South of Europe, 
the produce, in spite of an extension of the mulberry and 
silkworm culture, is less than one-tenth of its former 
amount. The total weight of the cocoons produced in 
Tuscany, during the year 1865 was only 42,000 kilogrammes 
—the pi’oduce in previous years having frequently amounted 
to 480,000 kilogrammes, each kilogramme being equal to 
2 lbs. 2 oz. English weight. 
As there is no known remedy for this formidable disease, 
the French government, recognising the vast importance of 
the subject, directed M. Guerin-Meneville to investigate the 
natural history of the silk-bearing insects, in order to ascer- 
tain if any of them were capable of being substituted for 
the mulberry worm. Two species have already been success- 
fully introduced into the South of Europe, being sufficiently 
hardy to bear exposure to the open air and to feed on the 
plants growing in the ground. These are the Bombyx 
Ricinus, or castor-oil silkworm, and the Bombyx Cynthia, 
or ailanthus silkworm. Others will probably be found 
sufficiently hardy to withstand our climate, but at present 
we have to do only with the ailanthus worm. Europe 
is indebted for the introduction of this valuable insect 
to the labours of the Abbe Fantoni, a Piedmontese mis- 
sionary, who forwarded it from the province of Shang- 
Tung, in the north of China, a district that is said to resem- 
ble in its climate the northern parts of Germany. The 
cocoons forwarded by Fantoni in the autumn of 1856 were 
hatched out at Turin in May, 1857, when the first living 
specimens of this beautiful insect were seen in Europe. In 
1858, specimens were received at Paris ; and Mr. F. Moore, 
of the East Indian Museum, exhibited specimens hatched in 
1859 before the members of the Entomological Society of 
London. Lady Dorothy Nevill was, however, the first to 
rear the insects in any numbers ; and, more recently, Dr. 
Alexander Wallace, of Colchester, has devoted great atten- 
tion to their culture in the open air, having planted the 
banks of the railway near his residence with many hundred 
ailanthus trees, and reared many thousand worms during 
the past two or three seasons. The ailanthus shrub or tree 
has been long known in England, where it has generally 
been termed the false varnish-tree of Japan. It is a hardy 
ornamental tree, growing freely even on the poorest soils, 
flourishing - in the midst of the smoke in many London 
squares, and producing its large compound leaves freely 
even on the barren Landes of France and the sterile dunes 
of Holland. 
The ailanthus worm appears equally hardy ; covered with 
a powder which repels the wet, it is indifferent to rain and 
wind, provided that the violence of the gale is not sufficiently 
great to bruise it by the swaying of the branches. 
The climate of England appears to suit it even better 
than that of France, if we may judge by the results that 
have been obtained, the moths reared in this country being 
finer in colour and larger in size than the first imported 
specimens. 
Unlike the mulberry silkworm, that passes through our 
winter in the egg and hatches with the return of the warm 
weather, the Bombyx Cynthia passes the winter in the 
cocoon, whence it emerges in the summer, lays its eggs, 
and dies. These eggs hatch in from ten to eighteen days 
after they are laid, and if the caterpillars are produced early 
in the year, there is time to rear two generations of moths 
during one season. 
It is, however, probable that in practice it will be found 
most desirable to rear only one brood, as the second pro- 
duces cocoons which are much smaller in size, and conse- 
quently less valuable than those from the first brood. The 
issuing-forth of the moths from the cocoons is most graphi- 
cally described by Dr. Wallace in his “ Essay on Ailanthi- 
culture.” It received the prize offered by the Entomo- 
logical Society of London, and we regret we are not able 
to extract the passage at length. He states, in conclusion, 
that the whole process of birth does not occupy a minute. 
After the moths have emerged, Dr. Wallace finds it most 
advantageous to keep them in large cylinders formed of per- 
forated zinc, against the sides of which the eggs are depo- 
sited ; these are readily removed by slight friction with the 
finger, and if kept moist will hatch in from ten to eighteen 
days, varying with the temperature in which they are kept. 
The eggs are larger than those of the ordinary silkworm 
moth, and sufficiently firm to bear transit by post without 
injury, especially if secured in a quill. Each moth lays a 
number of eggs varying from one to three hundred. 
