186 SiUtD'irm* in India. [Vol. I. 



which are retained as seed for the next year's crop are then sent up to 

 Mussoorie (7,100 feet above sea-level), where the comparatively low 

 temperature prevents their hatching out until brought down again to 

 Dehra in the February o£ the following year. 1 



The following general account of the cultivation of Bomhyx mori 

 in a temperate climate is taken from Riley's Manual, U. S. Dept. 

 Agric, Bull. No. 9 (1886) 2 :— 



" The egg. — The egg of the silkworm moth is called hj silk-raisers the seed. It 

 is nearly round, slightly flattened, and in size resembles a turnip seed. Its colour, when 

 fresh deposited, is yellow, and this colour it retains if uuimpregnated. If impregnated, 

 however, it soon acquires a gray, slate, lilac, violet, or even dark green hue, accord- 

 ing to variety or breed. It also becomes indented : when diseased, it assumes a still 

 darker and dull tint. Near one end a small spot may be observed ; this is the 

 micropyle, and is the opening through which the fecundating liquid is injected 

 just before the egg is deposited by the female. After fecundation, and before 

 deposition, the egg of some varieties is covered with a gummy varnish, which closes 

 the micropyle and serves to stick the egg to the object upon which it is laid. 

 Other varieties, however, .... have not this natural gum. As the hatching 

 point approaches, the egg becomes lighter in colour, which is due to the fact that its 

 fluid contents become concentrated, as it were, into the central forming worm, leaving 

 an intervening spai'e between it and the shell, which is semi-transparent. Just before 

 hatching, the worm within becomes more active ; a slight clicking sound is frequently 

 heard, which sound is, however, common to the eggs of many other insects. The 

 shell becomes quite white after the worm has made its exit, by gnawing a hole through 

 it, which it does at the micropvle. Each female produces on an average from three 

 to four hundred eggs. In the standard ounce of 25 grams (28-| grams = 1 oz. 

 avoirdupois) there are about 50,000 eggs in the small Japanese races, 37,500 in the 

 ordinary yellow annual varieties, and from 30,000 to 35.0C0 in the races with large 

 cocoons. The specific gravity of the egg is slightly greater than water .... 

 It has been noticed that the colour of the albuminous fluid of the egg corresponds to 

 that of the cocoons, so that when the fluid is white the cocoon produced is also white, 

 and when yellow the cocoon again corresponds .... 



" The laroa or worm. — The worm goes through from three 3 to four molts, or sick- 

 nesses, the latter being the normal number. The periods between these different molts 

 are called ages, there being five of these ages, the first extending from the time of 

 hatching to the end of the first molt, and the last from the end of the fourth molt 

 to the transformation of the insect into a chrysalis .... The time from the 

 hatching to the spinning of the cocoons may, and does, vary all the way from thirty 

 to forty days, depending upon the race of the worm, the quality of food, mode of feed- 

 ing, temperature, &c The colour of the newly hatched worm is black or 



dark-gray, and it is covered with long stiff hairs, which, upon close examination, will 

 be found to 6pring from pale-coloured tubercles. Different shades of dark-gray will 

 however be found amongst worms hatching from the same batch of eggs. After the 



1 From Fuller's account of a sericultural experiment in Chindwara (1883). 



a This work is based upon the writings of Pasteur and Maillot. 



8 In his L'Jrt de la Soie, Rondot writes that a constant variety of worms with three 

 molts is found iu Milan, roth worms and cocoons are small ami the cultivation of the 

 race is but little extended in either France or Italy. 



