1^0. 3. ] Silkworms in India, 135 



caterpillar generally continues to live and feed as before, and in some 

 cases spins a cocoon, but it invariably perishes when the grubs cut their 

 way out. The cocoon made by a parasitised worm is generally a poor 

 one to begin with, and is rendered unfit for reeling by the hole made by 

 the grub in escaping from it. This pest can be to a great extent kept 

 under by the removal of all rubbish in which the grubs pupate, the speedy 

 suffocation of all cocoons that are known to harbour fly, the establish- 

 ment of well-marked intervals of time between the bunds, so that the 

 flies that are bred with the worms of one bund die out before the next 

 bund commences, and by precautions to prevent the propagation of the 

 fly in the intermediate generations of silkworms that are reared for the 

 production of seed. A somewhat similar parasite attacks the mulberry 

 silkworms of China 1 , while in Japan the ouclji fly 3 {Uclschymia seri- 

 raria), which however has a somewhat different life history, affects silk- 

 worms much in the same way. Some loss is also occasioned in silk- 

 rearing establishments by rats, mice and ants, also by Dermestes and 

 Anthrenus beetles, particularly by Dermestes viclpimis*, which penetrates 

 the cocoons, and thus renders them unfit for reeling. The damage how- 

 ever that is done by these pests is generally of only secondary im- 

 portance. 



BOMBYX MORI.* 



[ Plate VIII (6) and Plate XV. ] 

 This is the common annual silkworm domesticated in Japan, China, 

 Bokhara, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Persia, South Russia, Turkey, Egypt, 

 Algeria, Italy, France, Spain, America, and Australia. It requires 

 cold for the uniform hatching of its eggs, and produces a close-grained 

 cocoon containing a large amount of silk, of a golden yellow or white 

 colour, that can readily be reeled. This silkworm is essentially 

 suited to the conditions of a temperate climate, and is not generally 

 cultivated in India, though it has been grown on a small scale in Dehra 

 Dun (North- Western Provinces), and also in some parts of the Punjab. 

 In Dehra Dun (2,300 feet above sea-level) the eggs are hatched in 

 February, and the cocoons are ready by the end of March. The eggs 



1 Rondot : L'Art de la Sole, Vol. II, p. 486. 



3 Sasaki's paper in Journal of College of Science, Tokio, Japan, I (1), 1886. 



3 See Indian Museum Notes, Vol. I, No. I, p. 47 (1889). 



4 Phalaena Mori, Linn. : Syst. Nat. ii, p. 817 (1767). 

 Bomlyx Mori, Fabr. : Sp. Ins. ii, p. 180 (1781). 



,, Pasteur : 'Etudes sur la Maladie des Vers a Sole (1870). 



„ Maillot : Lecons sur les Vers a Soie du Murier (1885). 



„ Rondot: L'Art de la Soie (1885-87). 



„ Riley : TJ. S. Dep. Agric. Div. Ent. Bull. No. 9 (1886). 



