334 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



bee and the mulberry silk- worm. The honey-bee, Apis mellifica, 

 has "been long used by man to obtain honey from, but only in 

 modern times has the species been the subject of true "breed- 

 ing." However, already several distinct races have been 

 produced. The bee is native to Europe and Asia, and "wild" 

 honey-bees in America are only communities established by 

 wandering swarms from hives, or from other " wild " commu- 

 nities which have descended from such escaped swarms (see 

 p. 185). 



The silk-worm, Bombyx mori, has on the contrary been an 

 artificially bred animal for five thousand years, and scores of 

 races, with differently colored and shaped cocoons, exist. The 

 actual wild species from which the domesticated races are 

 descended is not known, but it is most likely some one of the 

 several wild species of northern India. The cocoons of cer- 

 tain of these wild Indian species are to-day still collected for the 

 silk and sold under the commercial name of "Tussoor" silk. 

 The ancient breeding and care of silk-worms was mostly done 

 in China and Japan. To-day it is carried on even more ex- 

 tensively in France and Italy (see p. 176). 



