9^0 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



the cultivation of silk with every appearance of 

 success; but since tlieir removal the trees have been 

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

 considerable plantation of mulberry-trees were pur- 

 chased by the British, Irish, and Colonial Silk 

 Company in 1 825 ; 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 informa- 

 tion; 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. t 



There are not only several varieties of the common 

 silk-worm (Bombijx mori), but other species of ca- 

 terpillars, which spin silk capable of being manufac- 

 tured, though not of so good qualities as the common 

 silk. None of our European insects, however, seem 

 to be well fitted for this purpose, though it has been 

 proposed by Fabricius and others to try the crimson 

 under-wing (Catocala sponsa, Schrink), &c. M. 

 Latreille quotes from the ' Recreations of Natural 

 History,' by Wilhelm, the statement that the cocoons 

 of the emperor-moth {Saturnia pavcnia) 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 attention with respect to the ingenuity of its ar- 

 chitecture, than the beauty of its colours, and has 



* Preface to Dandolo ontlie Silk-AVonn, Eng. Transl.p.xiii. 

 t Glover's Directory of the County of Derby, introd. p. xvi. 



