lepidoptera. 295 



Lasiocampa *. 

 Those, in which the inferior palpi are not remarkably salient, com- 

 pose the subgenus, 



BoMBYx proper f. 



B. mori, L. ; Roes., Insect., Ill, vii, ix. Whitish, with two or 

 three obscure and transverse streaks ; a lunated spot on the 

 superior wings. 



The caterpillar is well knoAvn by the name of Silk-worm. 

 It feeds on the leaves of the Mulberry, and spins an oval cocoon 

 of a close tissue, with very fine silk, usually of a yellow colour, 

 and sometimes white. A variety is now preferred, which 

 always yields the latter. 



The Bombyx which produces it, is originally from the north- 

 ern provinces of China, According to Latreillc, the city of 

 Turfan, in Little Bucharia, was for a long time the rendezvous 

 of the western caravans, and the chief entrepot of the Chinese 

 silks. It was the metropolis of the Seres of Upper Asia, or of 

 the Serica of Ptolemy (a). Driven from tlieir country by the 

 Huns, the Seres established themselves in Great Bucharia, and 

 in India. It was from one of their colonies, Ser-hend (Ser-indi), 

 that Greek missionaries, in the reign of Justinian, carried the 

 eggs of the silk-worm to Constantinople. At the period of the 

 first crusades, the cultivation of silk was introduced into the 

 kingdom of Naples from the Morea; and, several centuries 

 afterwards, under the administration of Sully particularly, into 

 France. Silks Avere also procured by the ancients, either by 

 sea or land, from Pegu and Ava, or the Oriental Seres, those 

 most commonly mentioned by the earlier geographers. Some 

 of the northern Seres settled in Great Bucharia, according to a 

 passage of Dicnysius the historian, seem to have made it their 

 particular business. It is well known that silk was formerly 

 sold for its weight in gold, and that it is now a source of great 

 wealth to France. 



B. neusiria. Fab,; Ro3S., Insect., I, Cl:.ss II, Pap. Noct., vi. 

 Yellowish, with a band of two transverse, fulvous-brown stripes 

 on the middle of the superior wings. The female deposits her 

 eggs round branches of trees in the manner of a ring or bracelet. 



* The B. quercifolia, populifolia, hefulijoUa, iUicifolia, potaioria, of Fabricius. Thie 

 subgenus forms part of the genus, Gasfi-opacha, of Ochsenheiimer. 



M. Banon, of Toulon, to whose friendship I am indebted for many Insects col- 

 lected by him in Cayenne and the Levant, has given me a Lepidopterous Insect, 

 liaviug all the characters of a Lasiocampa, but furnished with a very distinct pro- 

 boscis. It seems to form the passage from this subgenus to the Calyplra of Och- 

 senheimer. 



t This generic appellation has been improperly suppressed by Ochsenheimer. 

 We will apply it generically to all the species of his genus, Gastropacha, in which 

 the inferior palpi do not project in the manner of a rostrum. 



{!(^ (a) Between the Ganges and the Eastern Ocean, according to that author. 

 It was this circumstance that induced the Romans to name silk, Seiicuin. Hence 

 their seiica vestis, — Eng. Ed. 



