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No success, so far as I know, was obtained with the rearing of the hybrid larvae; the rearings of the larvae of pure Gloveri were also, I think, a failure, only one correspondent having been successful; but some correspondents have not yet made the result of their experiments known to me.
Three North American silk-producing bombyces, very closely allied, have been mentioned in my previous reports; they are; Samia ceanothi, from California; Samia gloveri, from Utah and Arizona; and Samia cecropia, commonly found in most of the Northern States the latter is the best and largest silk producer.
The male of Angulifera is a brownish grey, the female reddish, with warm tan colours on her wing borders. She is very beautiful. The markings on the wings of both are not half-moon shaped, as Cecropia and Gloveri, but are oblong, and largest at the point next the apex of the wing.
After the females have finished depositing their eggs, they cling to branches, vines or walls a few days, fly aimlessly at night and then pass out without ever having taken food. Cecropia has several `Cousins, Promethea, Angulifera, Gloveri, and Cynthia, that vary slightly in marking and more in colour. All are smaller than Cecropia. The male of Promethea is the darkest moth of the Limberlost.
In 1881, the Gloveri cocoons, on the contrary, produced fine, healthy moths; yet only five pairings could be obtained, with about one hundred cocoons.
From the twenty-five eggs he had twenty-three larvae hatched, which produced twenty-three fine cocoons. The same correspondent, with thirty-five eggs of Samia gloveri, obtained twenty cocoons. My other correspondents did not obtain any success in rearing these two species, as far as I know. Hybrid Roylei-Pernyi.
Among those that fly at night only and take no food are the members of what is called the Attacine group, comprising our largest and commonest moth, Cecropia; also its near relative Gloveri, smaller than Cecropia and oflovely rosy wine-colour; Angulifera, the male greyish brown, the female yellowish red; Promethea, the male resembling a monster Mourning Cloak butterfly and the female bearing exquisite red-wine flushings; Cynthia, beautiful in shades of olive green, sprinkled with black, crossed by bands of pinkish lilac and bearing crescents partly yellow, the remainder transparent.
The larvae of Samia cecropia, S. gloveri, and S. ceanothi, are very much alike; and hardly any difference can be observed in the first two stages.
In the third and fourth stages, the larvae of S. cecropia and S. gloveri are also nearly alike; the principal difference between these two species and S. cecropia being that the tubercles on the back are of a uniform color orange-red, or yellow while on Cecropia the first four dorsal tubercles are red, and the rest yellow. The tubercles on the sides are blue on the three species.
The larvae of Samia gloveri were reared, during the first four stages on a wild plum-tree, then on Salix, caprea, and I reproduce the notes taken on this species, which I bred this year for the first time. Gloveri moths emerged from the 15th of May to the end of June; five pairings took place as follows: 1st, 4th, 9th, 24th, and 26th of June. First stage larvae quite black.
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