8 



Having said this much, mainly hoping to stimulate our new and 

 younger members to follow up the work of the older votaries of 

 knowledge seeking, I will turn to the subject of my Presidential 

 Address. 



I have selected for consideration the study of a delightful part 

 of entomology, which has a beautiful, important and economic 

 outcome. The title of my paper is " The Entomology and uses of 

 iSilk." 



I have selected this subject because it is one at which I have of 

 late worked most, and in both aspects I have for some years been 

 collecting silk-producers, not so much for their interesting larval 

 forms, or for the great beauty and variety of their imago states, but 

 in order to study the structure and physical properties of the fibres 

 which their larvae seriposit for a covering and protection during 

 the time they assume their torpid chrysalide state, a covering, 

 which, to serve economic ends, is from a few species, ruthlessly torn 

 by man to provide in other forms and in other colours, fabrics and 

 trimmings for human coverings and adornment, as well as of thread 

 to sew them with. 



When I began this delightful and interesting study many years 

 ago, my knowledge of silkworms, their moths and cocoons, was 

 limited to about 20 species, and they chiefly Indian. It was then 

 known only to a few entomologists that there existed many species 

 of silk secreting catterpillars in England and elsewhere To-day, 

 after a world-wide search, I am able to hand a new list to our Field 

 Club of 27 families, numbering 170 genera, with at least 630 

 species, all of which make silken coverings, but often as varied 

 in shape, size, build and differences of fibre, as the appearance of 

 their moths, the last stage in the curious life-history of this class of 

 insects . 



Of these 630 species, there are some exhibiting wonderful 

 characteristics. There is the tiny caterpillar of the smaller moths, 

 not more than half an inch in length, and from this can be shown 

 larvse of all sizes, up to the giant Tussur, two of which I took out 

 of a Terminalia Tree in a Missionary's garden in the Manblioom 

 Jungles of Bengal, each 5 inches in length and | of an inch in 

 thickness. I hope to show a representation of one of them on the 

 screen presently. Then there are the catterpillars which lead a 

 solitary life, aud shroud themselves in their silken envelopes when 

 they happen to have arrived at caterpillar maturity ; not so with 

 other species, for there is the Cricula Trifenestrata of India, which 



