No. 3. ] Silkworms in India. 151 



from supernatural influence. These men, both by the warmth of their 

 own bodies and by letting- in the air when the room becomes too hot, and 

 by stuffing up the cracks and crannies when it is too cold, for their own 

 comfort, no doubt, as Cleghorn suggests, unconsciously tend to keep the 

 conditions of the atmosphere suitable for the worms ; they thus furnish 

 an example of the practical utility of a custom which is followed on 

 account of the supernatural benefits supposed to be derived from it. 



The moths emerge from their cocoons within eight or ten days 

 after the spinning has been completed. The caterpillars molt four times 

 within a period of about 25 days, at the end of which time they are ready 

 to spin. As they gradually grow bigger they are distributed over a 

 larger and larger number of trays. The worms are fed three times 

 a day in the cold weather and four times a day in the hot. The 

 trays are cleaned about once every five days ; and as the worms are 

 moved by hand, the cleaning is often very imperfect, and by the 

 time it takes place the tray is covered with a fermenting mass of 

 leaves, excreta and dead worms, upon the top of which the live worms 

 are feeding. 



When full fed, the worms are removed by hand to cocooning trays, 

 which are fitted with a coiled strip of basket-work, about two inches 

 broad, along which the cocoons are spun. The spinning takes about 

 two days to accomplish, so that the whole period which elapses between 

 the bringing in of the seed and the selling of the cocoons is about 

 35 to 40 days. Some seven or eight crops of cocoons could be raised 

 in the course of the year, if it were desirable to do so, but as a matter 

 of fact, the rearing is only done in the regular bunds, both because a 

 continuous supply of mulberry leaf cannot usually be obtained and be- 

 cause the presence of the silkworm fly Trycolyga bombycis, referred to 

 on p. 134, renders continuous rearing inadvisable. 



BOMBYX CROESI. 1 



Nistry or Madrassi. 



This is a small multivoltine variety of the mulberry silkworm ; it 

 is reared chiefly in the March aud rains bunds in Bengal, where it is 

 second in importance to the Desi variety. It is also reared in Assam. 

 Like the Desi it produces a succession of crops throughout the year, 



1 Bombyx croesi, Hutton: Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond. (3), ii, p. 312 (1864-66). 

 „ „ „ Journ. Agri.-Horti. Soc, Ind., iii, p. 125 (1871). 



„ „ Moore : Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., 1867, p. 683. 



„ „ Wardle : Wild Silks of India, p. 3 (1881). 



„ „ Stack: Silk in Assam (1884). 



„ „ Cleghorn : Letter dated 9th March (1888) 



