DIRECT BENEFITS FROM MOTHS. 69 



The point of the spinneret is represented at a. 

 The following greatly magnified view of the Sabntm, 

 or lower lip of the Goat Moth Caterpillar, will shew 

 the relative situations of the different parts of the 

 spinning apparatus : 



The silk tube, or spinneret, is seen at a. " You may 

 sometimes have seen," says the Abbe de la Pluche, 

 " in the workshops of goldsmiths, or gold wire- 

 drawers, certain iron plates, pierced with holes of 

 different calibre, through which they draw gold and 

 silver wire, in order to render it finer. The Silk 

 Worm has under her mouth such a kind of instrument, 

 with a pair of holes, (united into one on the 

 outside,*) through which she draws two drops of the 

 gum that fills her two bags. These instruments are 

 like a pair of distaffs for spinning the gum into silken 



* According to the discovery of Lyonnet. 



