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X. On the Oak feeding Silkworm from Japan, Bombyx 
Yamamai (Guérin-Meéneville). By ALExaANDER WAL- 
Lace, M.D., M.R.C.P. 
In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria, si .# 
In consequence of the present dearth of silk, owing to repeated 
failures during the last ten or more years in the cultivation of the 
cocoons of Bombyx Mori, every variety of silken tissue is now 
eagerly sought after, and commands relatively a high prize. Asa 
result of this demand for inferior as well as superior material, 
attention has been called to the cocoons of other silk-producing 
Bombyces—a large and wide-spread tribe—and several of the 
most promising species have been introduced into Europe, and are 
now undergoing more or less successfully the process of acclima- 
tization; so that there dawns before our view the prospect of an 
extensive future cultivation and production of silken material in 
Central and Southern Europe, and in many of her colonies pes- 
sessed of suitable climate and soil. The naturalists who have 
undertaken these investigations, at the head of whom stands 
Mons. Guérin-Méneville of Paris, speak most confidently as to 
the results of their experience, and express a firm belief that at no 
distant day several valuable races of silkworms may be added to 
our domestic menagerie. The most valuable perhaps of these 
races, the Bombyx Yamamai, an inhabitant of Japan, forms the 
subject of this Essay. 
All that we know of the past history of this species is as follows : 
For many years the Japanese have cultivated an oak-feeding silk- 
worm as well as the mulberry worm; and according to some 
writers, the profits arising from this species exclusively belonged 
to the royal family, according to others its silken produce was 
employed to make the rich vestments of the imperial family. In 
* [To the Memoir endorsed with the above Motto was awarded a Prize 
offered by the Council of the Society for 1866, for an Essay on Economic 
Entomology.—Sec. Ent. Soc. | 
VOL, V. THIRD SERIES, PART Y.— MARCH, 1867. cc 
