THE SILKWORM ITS REARING AND MANAGEMENT. 49 



cient to settle this matter, and to show that it is to be referred 

 to the order Lepidoptera (scale-wings), where it finds itself 

 located with all other kinds of butterflies and moths, but with 

 no other sorts of insects. The Lepidoptera, again, are a very 

 extensive order, and are divided into many different groups. To 

 determine to which of these the silkworm belongs, we appeal to 

 the facts that it forms a good silken cocoon, and that its mouth 

 organs disappear when it is fully grown ; these peculiarities show 

 that it is a member of the section Bombyces, or silk spinners. 

 From most other of the silk spinners, such, e.g., as the Emperor 

 moths, it differs in that the caterpillar has no warts on its body, 

 but carries instead a horn on the last segment but one, and that 

 the wings are small in proportion to the size of the body. These 

 and some other minute features indicate its family as the 

 Bombycidae, and in this family, which is one of small extent, 

 it is placed in the genus Bombyx, with a specific name of mori, 

 which is the Latin equivalent of the expression " of the mulberry 

 tree," to indicate its attachment to that tree. Thus its full 

 scientific name is Bombyx mori, or, as it is now sometimes called, 

 Sericaria mori. We may exhibit its classification in the following 

 table :-- 



Section. Invertebrata. 



Sub-kingdom. Arthropoda. 

 Class. Insecta. 



Order. Lepidoptera. 

 Group. Bombyces. 

 Family . Bombycidae. 



Genus. Bombyx (Sericaria). 

 Species. Mori. 



The Common Mulberry Silkworm. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE SILKWORM ITS REARING AND MANAGEMENT. 



IN consequence of its domestication, the silkworm of commerce, 

 whose structure and life history we have just detailed, has become 

 much altered from its primitive condition, and has developed 

 many peculiarities. The most remarkable of these are the 

 absence of all desire to wander on the part of the larva, and the 

 inability of the moth to fly. The great difficulty in keeping 



