134 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



is not a worm, for a worm is, as you have seen, an 

 annelid, and docs not change, whilst the caterpillar is 

 only one stage in the life of the moth. The. silkworm 

 was introduced into Europe from \ China in the sixteenth 

 century. The Greek monks brought some of its eggs to 

 Constantinople, and it afterwards spread into Sicily and 

 Italy; but it was not until the reign of Henry IV. that 

 the rearing of the caterpillar and the manufacture of its 

 silk acquired the importance as a branch of industry 

 which it now possesses. This importance to Great Britain 

 alone you will be able to judge, when you are told that 

 i, 600 caterpillars are required to produce a pound of silk, 

 and that we import about 12,814,700 pounds per year, 

 the value of which is ^10,000,000; and this is besides 

 about ^6,500,000 worth of manufactured silk goods. So 

 that, altogether, the commercial value of the little insect 

 to this country is more than ; 16,000,000. 



The limits of this book will not allow of even a brief 

 description of the numerous groups and families of 

 insects : such account must be reserved for a future 

 volume. I will therefore briefly mention that they are 

 classified principally according to their wings. Thus, we 

 have the sheath-winged, such as the Beetle family ; the 

 straight -winged, as the Cricket, Locust, c. ; the 

 nerve-winged, of which the Dragon-fly is a specimen ; 

 membrane-winged, as the Bee ; twisted-winged, as the 

 Stylops a little insect which usually lives on the bodies 

 of other insects, and which has a twisted appendage placed 

 in front of its wings. Then we have the scale-winged, or 

 Butterflies : for you must know that every particle of the 

 dust which is rubbed off on your fingers when you have 

 touched a butterfly, is not exactly a scale, but more like a 

 feather. You can examine this in your microscope, and you 

 will see that the wing from which the feathers have been 

 rubbed, presents only the beautiful framework which has 



