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Herodotus speaks of it amongst the Androphagae and the Issedones, people of Scythian origin; Aristotle amongst the races living on the borders of the Pontus Euxinus; Diodorus Siculus amongst the Galatians; and Strabo, in his turn, says: "The Irish, more savage than the Bretons, are cannibals and polyphagous; they consider it an honor to eat their parents soon after life is extinct."
The species is extremely polyphagous, and will feed well on oak, birch, chestnut, beech, willow, nut, etc. The moth of Polyphemus is very beautiful, and, as in some other species, varies in its shades of color.
Both species had, no doubt, fed on the same trees; as the Cynthia, like the Atlas cocoons, were all inclosed in leaves of the Berberis vulgaris, which shows that Cynthia is also a polyphagous species.
Though a Bombyx be polyphagous in a state of nature, yet I think most species have a tree proper to themselves, on which they are more at home than on any other plant. I should like, if you could find out from some your correspondents in India, on what species of tree Mylitta cocoons are found in the largest numbers, and what is about the greatest number found on a single tree.
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