LEPIDOPTERA, 295 
LaAsIocAMPa *. 
Those, in which the inferior palpi are not remarkably salient, com- 
pose the subgenus, 
Bompyx proper J. 
B. mori, L.; Rees., Insect., II, vii, ix. Whitish, with two or 
three obscure and transverse streaks; a lunated spot on the 
superior wings. 
The caterpillar is well known by the name of Stdk-worm. 
It feeds on the leaves of the Mulberry, and spins an oval cocoon 
of a close tissue, with very fine silk, usually of a yellow colour, 
and sometimes white. A variety is now preferred, which 
always yields the latter. 
The Bombyx which produces it, is originally from the north- 
ern provinces of China. According to Latreille, the city of 
Turfan, in Little Bucharia, was for a long time the rendezvous 
of the western caravans, and the chief entrepot of the Chinese 
silks. It was the metropolis of the Seres of Upper Asia, or of 
the Serica of Ptolemy(a). Driven from their country by the 
Huns, the Seres established themselves in Great Bucharia, and 
in India. It was from one of their colonies, Ser-hend (Ser-indz), 
that Greek missionaries, in the reign of Justinian, carried the 
eggs of the silk-worm to Constantinople. At the period of the 
first crusades, the cultivation of silk was introduced into the 
kingdom of Naples from the Morea; and, several centuries 
afterwards, under the administration of Sully particularly, into 
France. Silks were also procured by the ancients, either by 
sea or land, from Pegu and Ava, or the Oriental Seres, those 
most commonly mentioned by the earlier geographers. Some 
of the northern Seres settled in Great Bucharia, according to a 
passage of Dionysius the historian, seem to have made it their 
particular business. it is well known that silk was formerly 
sold for its weight in gold, and that it is now a source of great 
wealth to France. 
B. neustria, Fab,; Rees., Insect., I, Class II, Pap. Noct., vi. 
Yellowish, with a band of two transverse, fulvous-brown stripes 
on the middle of the superior wings. The female deposits her 
eggs round branches of trees in the manner of a ring or bracelet. 
* The B. quercifolia, populifolia, betulifolia, illicifolia, potatoria, of Fabricius. This 
subgenus forms part of the genus, Gastropacha, of Ochsenheimer. 
M. Banon, of Toulon, to whose friendship I am indebted for many insects col- 
lected by him in Cayenne and the Levant, has given me a Lepidopterous Insect, 
having ail the characters of a Lasiocampa, but furnished with a very distinct pro- 
boscis. It seems to form the passage from this subgenus to the Calyptra of Och- 
senheimer. 
{ This generic appellation has been improperly suppressed by Ochsenheimer. 
We will apply it generically to all the species of his genus, Gastropacha, in which 
the inferior palpi do not project in the manner of a rostrum. 
{> (@ Between the Ganges and the Eastern Ocean, according to that author. 
It was this circumstance that induced the Romans to name silk, Sericum. Hence 
their serica vestis, —ENG. ED. 
