Silk-producing Bombycide. 309 
and the body dark grey. Expanse of wings in the female 2 
inches; in the male 1? inches, although the size varies as much 
as the colouring. 
2. Bompyx TExToR, Hutton. 
Syn. Bombyx Mori of Indian sericulturists. 
The Boro-pooloo of Bengal; “ Pat major” of Royle. 
This species, hitherto confounded with the preceding, is said to 
have been introduced from China, where it is still cultivated, 
under the name of the white cocoon, but the time of its introduc- 
tion into India appears to have been forgotten. 
In Bengal, as well as in its native country, it is an annual, 
hatching early in the spring, usually in January, yielding generally 
pure white cocoons, far inferior in size to those of B. Mori, and 
altogether of a different shape, character and texture, having an 
inclination to become pointed at each end, and with the silk not 
closely interwoven, but externally somewhat flossy and loose, 
whereas the cocoons of B. Mori are closely woven, compact, hard 
and smooth, ovate in shape, and four or five times“ larger; some 
that I have received from France being little inferior in size to 
those of the Tussur moth (Antherea Paphia). 
The worm, when mature, bears a strong resemblance to that of 
the preceding species, but is much smaller both in length and 
thickness, and, as a strong mark of distinction, it may be observed 
that it preserves all its characteristics unchanged, even when cul- 
tivated in the same climate and in the same manner as B. Mori, 
neither of the species exhibiting the slightest indication of adopting 
the peculiarities of the other. 
In Dr, Bonavia’s Report on Sericulture in Oudh for 1864, he 
remarks of B. textor,—‘‘ I cannot find any reason to believe that 
this worm belongs to a different stock from the Cashmere and 
Bokhara worms ;” others have said the same thing, which only 
proves to me that they have never looked beyond the worm itself, 
since had they done so they might have found, as I have done, 
abundant proofs of specific distinctness. 
The same gentleman proceeds to inform us that— Captain 
Hutton favoured me with a small quantity of eggs of his selected 
dark-coloured worms. According to his views the dark-coloured 
variety approaches more to the wild kind, and therefore has more 
healthy blood in it than the white variety, which he considers as a 
degeneration of the original worm. It is strange though that 
the ‘ Boro-pooloo,’ which has been reared in Bengal for a long 
