342 Insect Architecture. 



mulberry, and had begun the cultivation of silk with every 

 appearance of success ; but since their removal the trees have 

 been cut down.* In the vicinity of London, also, a consider- 

 able plantation of mulberry-trees was purchased by the 

 British, Irish, and Colonial Silk Company in 1825 ; but we 

 have not learned whether this Company have any active 

 measures now in operation. 



The manufacture of silk was introduced into this country 

 in 1718, at Derby, by Mr. John Lombe, who travelled into 

 Italy to obtain the requisite information ; but so jealous were 

 the Italians of this, that according to some statements which 

 have obtained belief, he fell a victim to their revenge, having 

 been poisoned at the early age of twenty -nine. f 



There are not only several varieties of the common silk- 

 worm (Bombyx won'), but other species of caterpillars, which 

 spin silk capable of being manufactured, though not of so 

 good qualities as the common silk. None of our European 

 insects, however, seem to be well fitted for the purpose, 

 though it has been proposed by Fabricius and others to try 

 the crimson under- wing (Catocala sponsa, SCHRANK), &c. M. 

 Latreille quotes from the ' Eecreations of Natural History,' 

 by Wilhelm, the statement that the cocoons of the emperor- 

 moth [Soturwa pavonia) had been successfully tried in 

 Germany, by M. Wentzel Hegeer de Berchtoldsdorf, under 

 an imperial patent. 



EMPEROR-MOTH. 



The emperor-moth, indeed, is no less worthy of our atten- 

 tion with respect to the ingenuity of its architecture than 

 the beauty of its colours, and has consequently attracted the 

 attention of every Entomologist. The caterpillar feeds on 

 fruit-trees and on the willow, and spins a cocoon, in the form 

 of a Florence flask, of strong silk, so thickly woven that it 

 appears almost like damask or leather. It differs from most 

 other cocoons in not being closed at the upper or smaller 

 end, which terminates in a narrow circular aperture, formed 



* Preface to Dandolo on the Silk-Worm, Eng. Transl., p. xiii. 

 f Glover's Directory of the County of Derby, Introd., p. xvi. 



