MAY 22 1897 



SILKWORMS IN INDIA, 



BY 



E. C. COTES. 



PREFACE. 



This paper is intended to show concisely what is known of the natural 

 history and methods adopted in rearing- the silk insects actually culti- 

 vated in India for the production of silk; these forming an important 

 section of the economic insects whose investigation has been entrusted to 

 the writer. It is chiefly founded upon the materials which were 

 brought together in 188H, when collections illustrative of Indian sericul- 

 ture were prepared, under the direction of the Trustees of the Indian 

 Museam, for distribution by the Government of India to scientific insti- 

 tutions in India and Europe. These materials showed that it is now 

 possible to furnish a fairly complete account of the subject, and this 

 paper must therefore be looked upon as little more than an ' attempt to 

 collect into a convenient form what has hitherto been scattered through a 

 number of reports. 



It was at first intended that the account should include what is 

 known of the natural history of all the silk-producing insects, belong- 

 ing to the Lepidopterous families of Bombjcidse and SaturniidaB, that 

 are found in India, and with this end in view a considerable amount of 

 material was collected. Press of other work has prevented the whole of 

 this programme from being carried out, and as more than a year has 

 already elapsed since it was commenced, it appears best to confine the 

 paper to those species which are actually utilized in India for the produc- 

 tion of silk, and which are therefore the only ones which can be looked 

 upon as of any real economic importance. 



The purely commercial side of the silk question, connected, as it is, 

 with the conditions of silk markets, and the rise and fall of prices in all 

 parts of the world, is of such magnitude that it would obviously be out 

 of place to attempt to discuss it here. It has been very fully dealt with 

 by Geoghegan in his Account of Silk in India, Calcutta, 1872, by LiotarxL 



A. 



