WILD SILKWORMS. 79 



the specimens are still, and will probably remain, in statu quo 

 to prove the matter. It really seems almost pareilel with the 

 case of a man retiring to his room for the purpose of undressing, 

 and then discovering that his clothes contained two persons a 

 man with his head in one boot, and a woman with her head in 

 the other, and all their feet in his hat ! ' 



Another curious malformation has occasionally been noticed, 

 viz., moths with caterpillar's heads. This results from an imper- 

 fect moulting ; the last larva skin remains adhering to the pupa 

 in the region of the head, and is in turn carried off by the moth 

 when it emerges, giving the insect a most remarkable appearance. 

 So perfect is the larval head, that even the tiny eyes are noticeable. 

 Such insects are frequently crippled in the wings. 



CHAPTER VI. 



WILD SILKWORMS. 



WHEN the silkworm epidemics wrought great and continually 

 increasing havoc among the magnaneries of Europe, and seemed 

 to threaten the extinction of the silk industry so far as Bombyx 

 mori was concerned, attention was naturally directed to other 

 insects, which could be found in a wild state, and might be fallen 

 back upon as a source of silk supply, in case the ordinary insect 

 should fail altogether. Moreover, as the demand for silk is even 

 now greater than the supply, efforts are still being made to bring 

 under domestication species different from any of the ordinary 

 mulberry silkworms, and to introduce silk culture into new 

 districts. These experiments have been made chiefly with 

 Indian and North American insects, and in India alone between 

 fifty and sixty species have been studied with a view to their 

 utilisation. Several of these exotics have been introduced into 

 Europe, and some have been bred even in our own country, so 

 that this little volume would hardly b complete without some 

 notice of what are commonly called "Wild Silkworms/' that is, 

 species which, though cultivated, still exist also in the wild state 

 and thus differ from Bombyx mori^ which is known only under 

 domestication. 



Silk producing Lepidoptera belong exclusively to two families, 

 the Bombycidce and the SaturnidcR. The former contains only a 

 very few insects, which are of small size and insignificant appear- 

 ance, and as we have already seen, both the ordinary silkworm 



