MBMHMMH 



21 



As more especially noticed under Colias Electra (pi. 29. fig. m—o.), this insect 

 is very inconstant in its appearance, since, although generally extremely rare, in- 

 stances are on record when, as about seventy years ago, it appeared in such immense 

 numbers as to attract public attention, and to obtain for the insect the name of the 

 Grand Surprise. Its ordinary English name, the Camberwell Beauty, has been 

 given to it in consequence of its having been first observed at Camberwell. It has 

 since been taken at Battersea, and other low places on the banks of the Thames 

 (probably attracted by the willows on which its larvae feed), as well as in various 

 parts of England. Like others of this genus it survives the winter, and again 

 appears in the following spring. The mode in which the suspension of the chrysalis 

 of this and other species of this genus is effected, has been carefully investigated by 

 Reaumur and De Geer, whose figures are copied into the < Insect transformations.' 



BOMBYX MORI. THE SILK MOTH. 



Plate XIII. fig. a—f. 



Synonyms. Phalsena (Bombyx) Mori. Linn. Syst. Nat. ii. 817. Stewart. Albiris Ins. pi. 12. f. 16. 

 Bombyx Mori, Stephens. 



Upper Side. The caterpillars are produced from eggs of the shape, colour, and size of those 

 at (a), about the beginning of May, or sometimes sooner ; and if the mulberry leaves are not put 

 forth, the young caterpillars may be fed with lettuce. They are naturally tender, and subject to 

 several diseases, to prevent which they must be kept very clean and dry, often moving them, and 

 for the sake of air perfuming the room where they are kept with incense. When full fed, as 

 at (5), they spin themselves up, each in a yellow silken case or cocoon, as at (c), and change into 

 the chrysalis, which is figured at (d) : this happens about the middle of June. In this state 

 they remain about twenty days, when the moths appear : they are of a pale buff colour, having two 

 faint lines crossing the wings, which are a little bent, or hooked at the tips or apices. I have 

 figured the male at (e), and the female at (/), where they are shewn as in coitu. 



Expansion of the wings one inch and a half. 



The silk worm is, perhaps, the most interesting insect with which mankind 

 is acquainted, not only on account of the great value of the material of which its 

 cocoon is formed, but also of the means of employment it affords to thousands of 

 artisans. The insect is a native of the northern provinces of China, although now 

 perfectly naturalised in other countries, and the Chinese are supposed to have 

 discovered the art of silk making 2700 years B.C. From China the art passed to 

 Persia, India, Arabia, and the whole of Asia. The expedition of Alexander the 

 Great into Persia and India, first introduced the knowledge of silk to the Grecians, 

 350 years B.C., and with the increase of wealth and luxury in the Grecian court the 

 demand for silk also prodigiously augmented. Thence it passed to Rome, the 

 Emperor Heliogabalus being the first who wore a robe entirely of silk. The real 

 nature of the material however remained unknown, by some it was supposed to be a 

 kind of fleece which grew upon the branches of trees, by others the bark of the tree 

 itself, by some as the production of a flower, by others as the production of a shell- 

 fish similar to a mussel, whilst others maintained still more ridiculous notions. About 





