LEPIDOPTERA. 



243 



In 1866 M. Camille Personnat published a very interesting 

 monograpli of Ya7na-Afai, which may be consulted with profit by both 

 cultivators of silk and naturalists."^ 



Attaais pernyi yields a remarkably beautiful silk, fine, strong, and 

 brilliant, which can be spiun and dyed with great ease. The tissues 

 obtained from it partake of the qualities of ordinary silk, of wool, 

 and of cotton. This species of Attacus, which is reared on the 

 oak in Manchooria, has given rise to great hopes in France. The 

 cocoons and moths of this worm were exhibited for the first time at 

 the Universal Exhibition of 1855. They were reared by M. Jordan, 

 of Lyons, from some cocoons sent from China by missionaries. 

 It will be easily understood, however, that great difficulty attends the 

 acclimatisation of several of these moths in European countries. 



Figs. 224 and 225 represent, after drawings in the Memoir of 



Fig. 224. — Cocoon of Attacus (Bombyx) pernyi. 



M. Guerm-Meneville, already referred to, the cocoon and moth ot 

 the Attacus periiyi. 



The silk which Attacus Mylitta produces is perhaps superior to 

 that of Pernyi. When the cocoons are properly prepared, the silk 

 can with ease be wound off from one end of them to the other. 

 This worm is found in various parts of Bengal and of Calcutta, and 

 also at Lahore, and its silk is exported in considerable quantities 

 under the name of tusseh. Brownish stuffs are made of it in India of 



unfortunately were complete failures as far as rearing the moth went, see an essay 

 by that gentleman in The T7'ansactio7is of the Entomological Society of London, 

 3.rd series, vol. v., pt. 5 ; Longmans and Co. The results of an experiment which 

 gave the greatest hopes of success, will be found in **The Entomologist " for 

 October, 1867.— Ed.] 



* Le Ver a Soie du Chene {Bombyx Yama Mm), son histoire, sa description, ses 

 moeurs. 8vo, avec planches colorees. A Laval, a I'ecole de sericulture. 



