CHAPTER I. 



MANUFACTURE OF SILK BY CATERPILLARS OF VARIOUS KINDS. 



THE most important of all the insect manufac- 

 tures is doubtless that of silk-spinning. It seems 

 almost past belief that the magnificent velvets, 

 satins, and silks which form so elegant a part of 

 female attire, and which are heaped together in 

 such costly profusion in the shops of the metro- 

 polis, and in those of all considerable towns, 

 whether in our own, or in foreign countries that 

 these splendid fabrics, together with all ribbons, 

 gauzes, damasks, or other articles composed of silk, 

 should owe the raw material of which they are 

 formed to the labours of a race of little creeping 

 caterpillars, which in this their early and imperfect 

 state spin for themselves cocoons, or cases of silk, 



