158 



NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



Silk of the Cucropia. 



Figure 34 In the " Philosoph- 



ical Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of 

 London," for the year 

 1759, vol. li., p. 54, 

 it is stated that the 

 Rev. Samuel PuUein 

 was among the first 

 to attempt to unwind 

 the cocoons of the Ce- 

 cropia Moth. "Mr. 

 Pullein ascertained 

 that twenty threads 

 of this silk/ twisted 

 together, would sus- 

 tain nearly one ounce more in weight than the same num- 

 ber of common silk. 



We find also, in the *' Transactions of the American Phil- 

 osophical Society of Philadelphia," vol. i., p. 294, that Mo- 

 ses Bartram, of Philadelphia, as early as the year 1767, 

 raised a number of caterpillars from the eggs of the Cecro- 

 pia, from which he obtained cocoons. 



" About twenty years ago," says the Journal des Dehats, 

 Paris, Juillet, 1846, "Mons. Audouin received a box of co- 

 coons of the Cecropia and its kindred moths from New Or- 

 leans, and he succeeded perfectly in raising them, and after- 

 ward witnessing their several metamorphoses." 



The Polypheme, Luna, and Promethea Moths also pro- 

 duce large cocoons, and silk of the same quality ; and our 

 lamented friend. Dr. Thaddeus Harris, of Cambridge, Mas- 

 sachusetts, says, in his Treatise on Injurious Insects : " The 

 following circumstances seem particularly to recommend 

 these indigenous Silk-worms to the attention of persons in- 

 terested in the silk culture. Our native trees afford an 

 abundance of food for the caterpillars; their cocoons are 



