9 8 



SILKWORMS. 



most extraordinary one. The silk of which it is composed is 

 brilliantly golden and glossy ; it is surrounded by a little " floss," 

 but the "pod," as the firmer part is called, is perforated with large 

 holes, i.e., the silken threads are so arranged in their crossings and 

 interlacings that, instead of forming an entire, compact wall, they 

 leave numbers of openings into the interior, scattered in a 

 perfectly indiscriminate manner over the whole of the cocoon 

 except the point of its attachment to its support. This insect 

 is extremely abundant in the eastern districts of India, where, it 

 is said, the cocoons rot in the jungles for want of gathering. The 



\ 



Fig. 36. Larva of Actias Luna. 



silk is strong, rich, and glossy, but its cultivation has not yet been 

 developed. 



All the insects above enumerated, together with several others 

 which are equally silk-producers, have been at one time or other, 

 bred in this country, and several of them have been reared from 

 one generation to another. The breeders have, however, depended 

 chiefly upon the supply of living cocoons from abroad, from 

 which they rear the moths, and then, if they can secure pairings 

 between these, so as to obtain fertile eggs, they manage with care 

 to conduct the insects through a complete cycle of their meta- 



