1 30 Silkworms in India. [ Vol. I. 



in his Memorandum on Silk in India, Calcutta, 1883, and by Rondot in 

 Lis general work L'Art de la Soie, Paris, 1885-87. It may be noticed, in 

 passing", however, that the general features it presents are a sustained 

 depression in the silk trade, especially in that portion of it connected with 

 reeled silk, together with a general tendency to devote attention to carded 

 silk, and to the rough silk produced by the semi-domesticated silkworms 

 of India and China. 



DOMESTICATED MULBERRY SILKWORMS. 



[ Plate VIII, b and c, and Plate IX. J 

 The classification of the domesticated mulberry-feeding silkworms, 

 which are reared in different parts of the world, has long been a puzzle 

 to entomologists; the fact being that, while the extreme forms of each 

 variety are well marked and distinct, both in habits and appearance, they 

 are connected by so many intermediate forms that in most cases it is 

 impossible to fix any line of demarcation which shall separate the 

 varieties into groups having distiuct characteristics ; added to this, so far 

 as has at present been observed, even the most distinct forms are subject 

 to the same diseases, and interbreed readily, when allowed to do so, pro- 

 ducing fertile offspring which present characteristics intermediate between 

 those of their parents. On the whole, therefore, it seems best to look 

 upon all domesticated mulberry-feeding silkworms as belonging to the 

 one species Bombyx mori, the innumerable varieties being considered as 

 merely Sub-species or races, though for convenience we may retain their 

 old nomenclature, which accords them the rank of Species. Of these races, 

 or sub-species, we may notice the common annual silkworm {Bombyx 

 mori) which is reared in Japan, Central Asia, Southern Europe, and indeed 

 throughout the whole of the temperate zone. It comprises innumerable 

 local varieties which agree, more or less absolutely, in being univoltine 

 (that is to say, in going through but one generation in the course of the 

 year) ; in the cocoons being of a firm and close consistency, so that the 

 silk can be readily reeled off them ; and in the eggs requiring to be exposed 

 to a certain degree of cold to enable them to hatch out regularly and 

 healthily. Connected with this race are bivoltine 1 varieties, which pro- 

 duce two crops in the course of the year, the eggs of the second genera- 

 tion only being kept for the next year's crop, as those of the first 



1 Rondot, in Wis L'Art de la Soie writes that the Genoese were the first to introduce the 

 bivoltine worms of China into Europe. The cocoons, which are white in colour, were reared 

 at Novi Ligure with the greatest care and gave good results, the silk becoming well known 

 under the name of " candide di novi." 



