BOMBYCIDS. 
115 
are apt to be small in size, as the insect does not seem to thrive well 
in captivity. 
I am in hopes of finding a method of breeding Inna moths of 
good size, but so far the efforts of my brothers and self have re¬ 
sulted in pigmies. This insect is sometimes found in great abun¬ 
dance, and I have seen the sidewalk under an electric lamp littered 
with their wings, the insects attracted to the light having probably 
been devoured by bats. 
. Cabinet specimens should be kept out of the light, or they will 
soon lose their beauty. A good-sized insect of this species will 
expand five inches. The females are generally of a bluish-green, 
while the males are more yellowish. The broad band along the 
upper margin of each fore wing, extending across the thorax, is 
purplish-brown. On each wing is a transparent eve-like spot sur¬ 
rounded by rings of maroon, ochre-yellow and black. The body 
is very downy and cottony-white, and the antennm are ochre-yel¬ 
low. The insect has a wide range over a large part of the country. 
Allied species are found in Central America and in Japan and 
China. 
The silkworm par excellence QBombyx ?nori') : domesticated in 
China at a very early date, was long ago introduced into Europe and 
later into America, where it is still cultivated to a limited extent. 
The rearing of the larvae and reeling of the silk of this species has 
not met with the success predicted for silk culture in this country; 
and although the government took up the problem in a scientific 
manner at their experimental station in the Agricultural Department 
in Washington, D. C., after a great many attempts covering several 
years, the enterprise was finally abandoned. One great obstacle in 
connection with the successful rearing of this insect in large num¬ 
bers is the fact that it thrives well only on the mulberry tree (its 
native food plant) and the osage orange, necessitating the cultiva¬ 
tion of these trees over large areas. It is also much less hardy than 
the larvae of most of our silk-spinning moths. The insects, too, are 
very susceptible to several contagious diseases which sometimes carry 
off hundreds of thousands in a single night. 
The female moth lays three hundred or more eggs, which are 
round and of a light yellow color, and are usually attached to the 
paper generally provided for this purpose by a secretion furnished by 
the moth. The eggs soon begin to turn dark, and the young cater¬ 
pillar when it makes its escape is dark gray, clothed with long hairs 
