Guide to the study of insects, and a treatise on those injurious and beneficial to crops: for the use of colleges, farm-schools, and agriculturists . trumpet-call,and all are instantly in motion, seeking shelter beneath thethicker branches, and even descending the trunk of the tree tosome little distance, but never proceeding so low down as to 296 LEPIDOPTERA. lose the protecting shelter of the boughs. For rain they carenothing, but appear to be able to distinguish between the coin-ing of a heavy shower, and the more pitiless pelting of the and its allies (Attaci) form the central
Guide to the study of insects, and a treatise on those injurious and beneficial to crops: for the use of colleges, farm-schools, and agriculturists . trumpet-call,and all are instantly in motion, seeking shelter beneath thethicker branches, and even descending the trunk of the tree tosome little distance, but never proceeding so low down as to 296 LEPIDOPTERA. lose the protecting shelter of the boughs. For rain they carenothing, but appear to be able to distinguish between the coin-ing of a heavy shower, and the more pitiless pelting of the and its allies (Attaci) form the central and mosttypical group of the family. They are among the largest ofinsects. The genus Attacus is found in China, the East Indiesand the South Sea Islands, and in Brazil. Its immense size,falcate wings, with the large triangular transparent spot in thecentre, readily distinguish it. A. Atlas Linn., from China,expands from seven to nine inches. Samia is a smaller genusand with a partially transparent lunate spot in the middle ofthe wings. Hantia Cynthia Linn, has been introduced fromChina and is a hardy worm, quite easily raised, and the silk is. of a good quality. Mr. W. V. Andrews urges, in the AmericanNaturalist (vol. ii. p. oil), the cultivation of the Cynthia silk-worm in this country, as it is double-brooded, our native spe-cies bearing but a single crop of worms. It feeds on the ail-anthus, and can be reared in the open air. Among many alliedforms, generally referred to the genus Attacus but which stillneed revision, are the A. M>/litt(t (Tussah worm), from Chinaand India ; A. Pernyi, from Manchouria, which feeds on the which has been raised in France, and the Japanese AntJterceaYama-mai, all of which produce silk, though less reared inEurope than the Cynthia worm. The silk of the Yama-maimoth approaches nearest that of B. mori, and as it feeds on BOMBYCIDJE. 297
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishe, booksubjectinsects
