THE BOMBYCINA. 
107 
a great size ; they are celebrated for their beauty and strangeness 
of form, as well as for the simplicity of the decorations of the 
species which are the most valuable to man. As moths the 
Bombycina are usually stout and solid about the body without 
being as robust as the sphinges. Their wings are usually large, 
and the antennae, which are formed like the teeth and stem of a 
comb (pectinated), are sometimes feathery in the males. The 
trunk is rudimentary and useless, and the legs are short. The 
majority of the moths live for love, and the lady bombycides 
are so attractive that their pursuit and courtship are the sole 
pleasures and delights of the males, which seek them out at 
great distances and in a most remarkable manner. If a female 
moth be carried into a house in a town far away from the fields 
and hedges and be placed upon the window-panes, she will surely 
attract followers and lovers in abundance. Towards the evening 
the gentlemen begin to arrive ; they are in a great hurry, and 
usually are very short sighted : so that they can see their cherished 
object, what else is worthy of consideration ? Love laughs at 
locks, bolts, and bars, but a pane is no joke, and many an ardent 
bombyx bangs against this deceptive prison wall, maddened by 
the sight of bombycina and hopelessly in love. An Australian 
traveller once caught a pretty little moth and placed it in his 
pocket inside a box. All the evening he was pestered with 
moths that flew about him and settled upon him in every direction. 
They followed him into his house, and would not be satisfied 
without a sight of bombycina. 
The males which are thus able to find out the hidden females, 
have feathery antennae, and perhaps there is some excessively 
delicate organisation in them that gives the insect the peculiar 
power of discovering the distant and desired object. Sight is of 
no importance, neither is hearing, in this peculiar inquiry; and, 
although it is difficult to understand, probably the odour of the 
female insect attaches itself to anything it may touch, and thus 
attracts the males. 
There are many tribes in this great group. 
The Bombycides contain the most remarkable species, and 
they all have almost invisible trunks and small palpi. A section 
of them, with large wings marked with a spot upon their disc, 
