SK.MI |H.MK>||r\||i,N 



SII.K 

 ANTHKH4CA FAPHIA 



changeable. The English rendering tu**r (if pronounced lootoor) would 



I..- .jiiitr unintelligible to the Natm- K.juallv *Uunl * 



mid. -i-in us tusaah, tusaeh and tusha. (('/. Millmr: 



L'li.| 



Itninphiiu gives an interesting account .,t thu itiMxrt, and appear* 

 to be the first Kuropean to call it ttuar (or, as he wrote it, tecMr), arul 



<** * 



Raoe*. 



word nm>t even then (1691) have been well known, seeing that be 

 able to contrast the insect of the Moluccas with that of Bengal. James 

 Petiver (who died in 171H) gives a picture of the coroon, ami speak 

 obtaining specimens from Madras thro ir.l Hulk Sam 



Browne. \('f. Phil. Trtms.. 17<U, No. 271, 84.'i ; Yul. 



:<.-, ii.. app. cccxx.] But an even earlier usage of the word denote* 

 a fabric of striped silk and cotton, the sillc being either itunr or 1111190. 

 Thus, for example, in the Ain-i-Akbari (1590) we read of tiuar selling at 

 Rs. \ to Rs. 2 a piece. 



Other vernacular names are used to denote this insect, or, rather, special 

 forms of it. We read of the tasar found in Bengal on the far-tree 

 being called bwjhy ; that found on the ojwn-tre. / 

 the jarvo ; in Manbhum, the tasar insect is known as data, 

 tlaba, and in Santali it is lumam, lumang ; in Bhagalpur and Dinajpur 

 (according to Buchanan-Hamilton) it is jnru : in the United Provinces 

 it is koa (cocoon), and the insect that lives on the her is called kutwari, 

 and that on the dsan the tasar ; and in Assam it is often distinguished 

 as the katkura, while in the Deccan the name kolisttura is sometimes v 

 to it. Roxburgh calls the insect bitghy, and the silk spun from its cocoons 

 tusseh. 



Habitat and Races. According to Sir George Hampson it is a native 

 of China, India and Ceylon. It may be spoken of as a denizen of the 

 upland forests inhabited by the Santhal, the Kol, the Khond ami the 

 Gond, extending west and south-west of the C. alluvial basin. 



In other words, commencing at the Rajmahal hills, it stretches through 

 Karackpore, Chota Nagpur, Orissa, the Central Provinces, the Northern 

 Circars to Hyderabad. It has thus the Ganges for its northern boun 

 the Godavari for its southern, the coast ranges of Orissa to Ranu: . 

 Hyderabad for its south-eastern, and the Nerbudda river and the Kaimor 

 mountains for its north-western boundary. But it crosses these lr 

 tions at various points, as, for example, it passes the Ganges and 

 Nepal, Sikkim, Assam, Manipur and Chitta^- i ; has also been re- 



corded in Mysore. Beyond the special tract indicated, it is everywhere 

 else more a curiosity than a commercial product. 



There are several varieties or races of this insect (Fa. Br. Ind.. I. 

 "The form iiif/litt<t is the most yellow: tl ,i,>/i> is pah- brownish- 

 yellow; iH-lmlosa greenish-brown, clouded with fuscous as far as the 

 postmedial line ; while cinu<il<-*<i, from Ceylon, is a dark brownish-yellow 



Semi-domestication. The term domestication .an hardly be applied I 

 to the method of rearing this insect pursued in India, and still in i. 

 localities it is not strictly speaking wild. The , hief districts of prodi. 

 are Bhagalpur, Chota Nagpur and Orissa in Bengal, and Cha 

 Nagpur, Nerbudda and Jabbalpur in the Central Provinces, 

 experiments performed some years ago at Poona proved that, so far ^at gj 

 least as Western India was concerned, the expectations often advanced 



1003 





