SATURNIIDAE. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
499 
silk; it was to supply the ,,silk of the poor“, in opposition to the more expensive fine silk from the webs of 
the mulberry-spinners. But while the production and sale of Samia-aiWt could be kept up in some places in 
'Eastern Asia, the culture of Saturniidae-silk could not get a firm footing in Europe and America, where likewise 
experiments have been tried to that effect. 
In India, however, the culture of the Tussah-silk (from the Antheraea) is still continued in some districts, 
as open country culture. The larvae are guarded from their enemies of the vertebrate and insect kingdoms by 
certain persons (Dhimurs), and this guardianship is carried out as a kind of Lent, with a certain ceremonial and in 
connection with prayers and fasting. During the six weeks’ — or thereabout — period of feeding of the larvae 
of Antheraea myiitta (53 a, b) the guard must continuously remain on the plantation, where be is only protected 
against the weather by a tent. He most cleverly catches the lizards pursuing the Saturniiclae , by means of a 
snare of thread, which he fastens on to a rod and draws around the neck of the lizard. Before the last moult, 
the breeding of silk-worms is particularly imperilled by birds which are chased away or killed by the guard by 
means of a bow or pea-shooter. Other enemies of note are the Eeduviidae and Tachinidae or Ichneumonidae, 
which the guard must touch with a rod at the end of which is placed some adhesive substance. The ants are 
kept off by glutinous rings around the trees. Let us add that neither this Tussah-silk nor that of other Saturniidae 
comes up to that produced from Sericaria mori. 
Most of the Saturniid larvae are polyphagous, so that they may be given leaves of trees from very 
different families of plants. There are some exceptions, however, e. g. Graellsia isabellae which has already been 
dealt with in Vol. II (p. 212) and is only found on certain conifers, and chiefly only on such trees in certain 
districts. Saturnia itself is known to live on plants from the family of Pomaceae, though in North Africa it is 
also to be found on olive-trees. The food of Attactis atlas is stated to be trees and shrubs from the families of 
Berberideae, Simarubaceae, Cupuliferae, Salicineae. Every European collector knows the great number of 
various kinds of food with which the larvae of Eudia pavonia can be bred, and for American Saturniidae (such 
as Platysamia cecropia) a bill of fare is given, the bounty of which is almost unequalled. We find the following 
cited as food: apple, pear, cherry, white thorn, sloe, Spiraea, lime, maple, elder, syringa, currant, elm, oak, 
beech, birch, hazel, hornbeam, alder, willow, poplar, barberry, Ceanothus, ash, raspberry, bilberry, tulip-tree, 
Virginia creeper, hickory, Gleditschia, — i. e. plants from 20 different families. 
In no Saturniid have we hitherto met with an organism that might be regarded as a real scent-organ. 
The great inactivity of the $$ which mostly await their fecundation sluggishly and only seem to wake up, when 
the deposit of eggs begins to take place, is evidently parallelled by a great indifference to external stimulations, 
so that all external excitants remain ineffective. One of our most thoughtful natural philosophers, Euich Haase, 
presumes that the first condition for the development of A scent-organs is that both sexes fly at the same hours 
of the day. This is, however, not always the case in the Saturniidae, but only occasionally. In the American 
Heliconisa, for instance, the <$$ which when flying look like Parnassius, fly in daytime according to Zikan, 
whereas the $ $ sit in the grass quite motionless; the same is the case with Eudia pavonia the of which swarm 
in the afternoon sun, and the Aglia-d'd' which are particularly active even in the forenoon. The Saturnia, Attacus, 
Actias, Sarnia, and most of the other genera both swarm together at night as is shown by the catch on the lantern. 
But their $$ presumably fly only after the copula, until which time they remain entirely passive. Often before 
the wings are altogether developed, they will sit at a place from which the wind carries their alluring scent far 
away; in forests without underwood close to the ground, in bushes and mixed woods at an altitude of 1—2 m, 
often clinging to the deserted pupal cradle, and all at once the ovipositor is seen extended far from the abdominal 
opening and sometimes performing small movements which presumably serve for putting forth alluring scents. 
As to the geographical distribution of the Saturniidae over the earth, 4 or 5 species occur in most of the 
districts with a warm climate, 2 or 3 species in the colder districts, whereas in tropical Africa and in the torrid 
zones of America there is a certain increase which does not occur in the torrid zones of Asia. In the temperate 
zone the west is more abundant than the eastern hemisphere, the western part of which, however, seems to be 
particularly poor. In the palaearctic region the warmer eastern part shows a slightly increased number of 
Saturniidae, whereas Japan, as far as it is palaearctic, cannot boast anywhere of more than 7 species, since 
the Hokkaido lacks the southern forms and the main island is without the genus Aglia. In the whole Indo- 
Australian Region the Saturniidae are distributed in such a way that the forms of the genera Attacus, Sarnia, 
Antheraea, Actias etc. represent one another, so that at hardly any spot in the world are more than 1 species 
of every genus to be found. In the same way that we ascertained the presence of the Antheraea-ve presentative 
Perisomena caecigena in South-Western Europe, we find in India Anther, myiitta, in Ceylon A. cingalesa , in 
Java A. Larisa, in the Andamans A. andamana, in Assam A. assama, at greater altitudes of the Himalaya A. 
frithi or helferi, in China A. pernyi, in Japan A. yamamai, in the Philippines A. semperi, in Australia Galig. 
eucalypti or Syntherata janetta-, across the Ocean Telea polyphernus shows an exterior similar to the Antheraea, 
although the wings are held .differently. We may assume that the genus Attacus , in spite of the great number 
of its forms which have been described and denominated, is nearly everywhere represented by but 1 single form. 
