THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



impeded. But even if favored with such a 

 source of supply, we would find the 

 Thracian honey a poor substitute for the 

 $80,000,000 worth of sugar now annually 

 imported into the United States. 



The dye furnished by the cochineal in- 

 sects has also had and passed its day of 

 high importance. The splendor of the 

 Tyrian purple lives only in tradition, but 

 we may fairly doubt whether it surpassed 

 the best cochineal in richness of tint. The 

 dark ages sadly needed bright colors. Few 

 of the gifts of the Western continent have 

 been of more service to mankind than the 

 scarlet and crimson juices of the coccus; 

 but now, its brightest tints seem pale beside 

 the sunset glow of the aniline colors. 



The Silkworm still retains its original 

 importance, and is at present the most 

 valuable of all insects to mankind. While 

 no substitute for silk has been discovered, 

 and perhaps none will ever be, a prophecy 



tFig. 39.] 



MuLDERKY Silkworm : full grown worm (after Riley 



to that effect would not be quite safe. 

 For instance: the limit of change in the 

 properties of glass may not have been 

 reached in the new processes of hardening 

 it ; suppose we could vulcanize it, as we do 

 India-rubber; how long would it be before 

 spun glass would be wound upon bobbins 

 and woven in looms ? 



Whatever rival it may have to meet in 

 the future, silk has at least an unbroken 

 record of favor throughout the whole re- 

 corded history of civilization. Every- 

 where it is associated with ideas of opulence 

 and luxury. Its bright threads are inter- 

 woven with and gleam out through the ro- 

 mances of every age. The discovery of 

 the uses of silk must have been made at a 

 very remote period, at least as far back as 

 the era of the Mediterranean mythologies. 

 The Egyptians attributed the invention to 

 Isis, the Greeks to Minerva, the Lydians 



to Arachne. The ladies last-named had 

 an unhappy quarrel. Arachne was the 

 daughter of a dyer, and hence had a good 

 introduction to the textile arts early in 

 life. Especially was she skilled in em- 

 broidery, and she challenged the goddess 

 of wisdom to a match with the needle. 

 Each competitor prepared a show-piece of 

 her handiwork. The fabric made by 

 Arachne was certainly very elaborate, for 

 it depicted all the noted love-scrapes of 

 Jupiter. It is said to have been a really 

 admirable piece of workmanship, but of 

 course that of the goddess was jironounced 

 the better. Poor Arachne committed sui- 

 cide, and Minerva changed her into a 

 spider, so that she might always be pulling 

 threads and weaving webs for herself. 



It is generally conceded that the use of 

 silk began in China. Modern and ancient 

 opinions on this point coincide. The fol- 

 lowing extracts give Pliny's notions; they 

 are in Holland's quaint transla- 

 tion: "The first people of any 

 knowledge and acquaintance be 

 the Seres, famous for tlie fine 

 silke that their woods doe yield." 

 * * * * "It is commonly 

 said that in the island of Coos 

 there be certain silke worms en- 

 gendered of flowers, which by the meanes 

 of raine-showers are beaten down and fall 

 from the cypres tree, terebinth, oke and 

 ashe; and they soon after doe quicken and 

 take life by the vapor arising out of the 

 earthe." Nearly all the allusions to silk in 

 Greek and Roman literature show a belief 

 that it was found as a downy substance — 

 a sort of wool — upon trees; there are also 

 expressions giving the idea that this material 

 was spread upon trees by the feet of in- 

 sects. There can be no doubt that the 

 early silk-culturists of the East kept, or 

 rather, left the larva; on the trees where 

 they first found them. It is asserted that 

 the Silkworm is still to be found living 

 freely on the mulberry trees in the vicinity 

 of Hangchow, where the insect is known 

 as Tien tse, i. e., the Son of Heaven. This 

 is supposed by the Chinese to be the prim- 

 ordial race of silkworms, whence the do- 



