ORDER IV.—MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 145 
mins and other sects, and would be highly useful to the in- 
habitants of many parts of America and the south of Eu- 
rope, where a light and cook and at the same time a cheap 
and durable dress, such as this silk furnishes, is much want- 
ed. The durability of this silk is really astonishing, as aft- 
er constant use for nine or ten years it does not show the 
least appearance of wear or decay. The insects which make 
this silk are thought by the natives of so much consequence 
that they guard them by day to preserve them from crows 
and other birds, and by night from the bats. The second, 
the Arindy Silk-worm (Phalena Cynthia, Drury), feeds sole- 
ly on the leaves of the Palma Christi, and produces remark- 
ably soft cocoons, the silk of which is so delicate and flossy 
that it is impracticable to wind it off, like other silk, from 
the cocoons; 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 dura- 
bility than the other, the lifetime of one person being sel- 
dom sufficient to wear out a garment made of it. It is 
used not only for clothing, but for packing fine cloths. 
Some manufacturers in England to whom the silk was 
shown seemed to think that it could there be made into 
shawls equal to any received from India. 
The silk which is the most extensively manufactured in 
China, Japan, France, Italy, and some other countries, is, 
as already mentioned, the product of the common silk-worm 
moth, which is of medium size, and of a white, yellowish 
color. A single female produces from three to five hun- 
dred eggs, which are oval, bright yellow, and which may 
be preserved in a cool room during a whole winter. In the 
month of May their color becomes lighter or paler, and 
little white and transparent caterpillars may be seen issu- 
ing from them. These little creatures require to be fed im- 
mediately with tender leaves of the white mulberry. They 
will also eat the leaves of maple, pear, and oak trees, as 
G 
