224 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



unwound from the 'pupa of a large horned caterpillar.^ Nor was the mode 

 of producing and manufacturing this precious material known to Europe 

 until long after the Christian aera, being first learnt about the year 550, by 

 two monks, who procured in India the eggs of the silk-worm moth, with 

 which, concealing them in hollow canes, they hastened to Constantinople, 

 where they speedily multiplied, and were subsequently introduced into 

 Italy, of which country silk was long a peculiar and staple commodity. 

 It was not cultivated in France until the time of Henry IV., who, con- 

 sidering that mulberries grew in his kingdom as well as in Italy, resolved, 

 in opposition to the opinion of Sully, to attempt introducing it, and fully 

 succeeded. 



The whole of the silk produced in Europe, and the greater proportion 

 of that manufactured in China, is obtained from the common silk-worm ; 

 but in India considerable quantities are procured from the cocoons of the 

 larvae of other moths. Of these the most important species known are 

 the Tusseh and Arindy silk-worms, of which an interesting history is given 

 by Dr. Roxburgh in the Linnean Transactions.^ These insects are both 

 natives of Bengal. The first (^Saturnia Paphin) feeds upon the leaves 

 of the Jujube tree (Rhamnus Jujuba), or Byer of the Hindoos, and of 

 the Terminalia alata glabra, Roxburgh, the Asseen of the Hindoos, and 

 is found in such abundance as from time immemorial to have afforded a 

 constant supply of a very durable, coarse, dark-colored silk, which is 

 woven into a cloth called Tussehdoofhies, much worn by the Brahmins 

 and other sects, and would, doubtless, be highly useful to the inhabitants 

 of many parts of America, and of the south of Europe, where a light 

 and cool, and at the same time cheap and durable dress, such as this silk 

 furnishes, is much wanted. The durability of this silk is indeed astonish- 

 ing. After constant use for nine or ten years it does not show any signs 

 of decay. These insects are thought by the natives of so much conse- 

 quence, that they guard them by day to preserve them from crows and 

 other birds, and by night from the bats. The Arindy silk-worm, (»S'a- 

 turnia Cynthia Drury,) which feeds solely on the leaves of the Palma 

 Christi, produces remarkably soft cocoons, the silk of which is so delicate 

 and flossy, that it is impracticable to wind it off: it is, therefore, spun 

 like cotton ; and the thread thus manufactured is woven into a coarse kind of 

 white cloth of a loose texture, but of still more incredible durability than 

 the last, the life of one person being seldom sufficient to wear out a gar- 

 ment made of it. It is used not only for clothing, but for packing fine 

 cloths, &-C. Some manufacturers in England to whom the silk was shown 

 seemed to think that it could be made here into shawls equal to any 

 received from India. A moth allied to this last species, but distinct, has 

 been described and figured by Colonel Sykes, who met with its leather- 

 like cocoons composed of silk so strong, that a single filament supported a 

 weight of 198 grains, in tliat part of the Deccan in India lying between 

 the sources and junction of the Bema and Mota Mola rivers. These 

 cocoons are called Jcolcsurra by the Mahrattas, who use them cut into 

 thongs, which are more durable than leather for binding the matchlock 



' Aristot. ubi supr. He does not expressly say the pvpa, but this we must suppose. The 

 larva he means could not be the common silkworm, since he describes it as large, and 

 having as it were horns. 



* vii. 33—48. Compare Lord Valentia's Travels, i. 78. 



