LEPIDOPTERA. 



sorts of it in use among the Chinese ; some admired for beauty, and others for durability. 

 It is generally supposed these are not merely the effect of different manufacture, but 

 are the produce of distinct insects.* Sir G. Staunton speaks of the culture of silk worms 



* M. Merian says, in tlie description of the Surinam variety of Phalsena Atlas : " Telam ducunt fortem, 

 quare bonuni fore sericum rata, istius aliquam collegi copiam et in Belgium transmisi, ubi eadem optima 

 judicata est : ut itaque, si quis Erucas istas congregandi laborem non detrectaverit, et bonse notee bombycem, 

 et maximum liinc lucrum sibi comparare posset." The thread of which this coccon's web is composed is so 

 strong, that it has been imagined it would make good silk. I have brought some of it into Holland, which has 

 been esteemed such; so that if any one would take the trouble to collect a number of these caterpillars, they 

 would be found good silk worms, and produce great profit. Merian. — Abbot informs us, the Moths of the 

 Emperor tribe in general are called silk worms by the people of Georgia; and in the description of Phalaena 

 Cecropia is still more explicit : for he says, " the caterpillar spins on a twig ; the outside web is coarse, the 

 inner covered with silk, like a silk worm's coccon. It is said this silk has been carded, spun, and made into 

 stockings, and that it will wash like linen." Abbot's Ins. by Dr. J. E. Smith. — These insects are all of the 

 same natural order, P. Cecropia is rather smaller, but very similar to P. Atlas, and this information at least 

 corroborates the assertion of Merian. 



An opinion that the Chinese rear several kinds of insects for the sake of their silk has long been prevalent. 

 Dr. Lettsom proposes a query on this subject, " Which species of moth or butterfly is it, the caterpillar of 

 which, in China, affords that strong grey kind of silk, and how is it manufactured or wore? How are these 

 silk worms or caterpillars preserved, fed, and managed? The introduction of such a new silk into England 

 would be a useful acquisition, and redeem entomology from the censure it is now branded with, of being a mere 

 curiosity void of any real utility."" If Lesser and Lyonet are to be relied on, the Tkeoloyie des Insectes 

 answers this query. " At this day there are to be found in China, in the province of Canton, silk worms in a 

 wild state, which, without any care being taken of them, make in the woods a kind of silk which the inhabitants 

 afterwards gather from the trees. It is grey, without lustre, and is used to make a very thick and strong cloth, 

 named there Kien Tcheon. It may be washed like linen cloth, and does not stain." A gentleman resident in 

 the East Indies speaks of a large Phalsena producing silk in that country : " We have a beautiful silk worm 

 north-ea.st of Bengal, that feeds on the Ricinus, whence I call it Phaltena Ricini ; it is sea-green, with sott 

 sj)ines, very large and voracious, and spins a coarse, but strong and useful silk. The moth is of great size, 

 with elegant dark plumage. Is it known to European naturahsts?" fn a collection of papers published by 

 Dr. Anderson hi Madras, 1788, 1789. — M. Le Bon, Reaumur, Roesel, and several others, have attempted to 

 weave the silk of spiders as a substitute for that of silk worms, but their experiments rather amuse and point 

 out the ingenuity of the proposers than promise to be useful; for after many trials, it appears that the silk of 

 spiders would be inferior in lustre and far more expensive than that of silk worms. Sir G. Staunton alludes to 

 these experiments in his description of the Java forests. " In some open spots were found webs of spiders, 

 woven with threads of so strong a texture, as not easily to be divided without a cutting instrument ; they 

 seemed to render feasible the idea of him who, in the southern provinces of Europe, proposed a manufacture 

 from spiders' threads, which is so ridiculous to the eyes of those who have only viewed the flimsy webs such 

 insects spin in England." Many other substances of a soft texture have also been wrought into a variety of 

 trifling articles, as gloves, stockings, &c. of the fibres of Asbestos earth, or mountain flax, beard of the large 

 Pinna shell, <S.c. &c. 



Naturalist and Traveller's Companion, 1774. 



