[82] Cuvier says that it is the males, and not the females, that have no sting.
[83] What modern naturalists call the “Hymenoptera.”
[84] Some kind of wasp, or, as Cuvier says, probably the mason bee.
[85] Called “bombyx” also; though, as Cuvier remarks, of a kind altogether different from the preceding one.
[86] The first kinds of silk dresses worn by the Roman ladies were from this island, and, as Pliny says, were known by the name of Coæ vestes. These dresses were so fine as to be transparent, and were sometimes dyed purple, and enriched with stripes of gold. They probably had their name from the early reputation which Cos acquired by its manufactures of silk.
[87] This account is derived from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 19.
[88] “Lanificia.”
[89] Early in the reign of Tiberius, as we learn from Tacitus, the senate enacted “ne vestis Serica viros fædaret”—“That men should not defile themselves by wearing garments of silk,” Ann. B. ii. c. 33.
[90] The Aranea lupus of Linnæus.
[91] As Cuvier observes, he has here guessed at the truth.