WHITE PLUME-MOTH.
A very delicate insect. The wings are cleft almost to the base into separate feathers, two on the fore wings and three on the hind wings.
"In ancient times the emperor and his princes had a public mulberry garden and a silkworm establishment erected near some river. On the morning of the first day of the third month of spring, the sovereign, wearing a leather cap and a plain garment, ascertained by lot the chief of his three queens, with the most honourable amongst his concubines, and caused them to attend to the rearing of the silkworms in the above-named establishment. They then brought the eggs of the worms, and washed them in the river above alluded to, after which they picked the mulberry-leaves in the public garden, and aired and dried them, in order to feed the worms.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
INDIAN SWALLOW-TAILED MOTH.
Resembles the American Luna Moth figured on page [718], and of an equally delicate green.
"When the season was over, the royal concubines, having completed the business of rearing the silkworms, brought the cocoons to show them to the prince, when he presented the cocoons again to his consort, whereupon his consort said, 'This is the material of which your highness's robes are to be formed.' Having said which, she covered herself with her robe, and received the cocoons. On this occasion the ladies of the court were honoured with the present of a sheep. This was the mode in which the presentation of the cocoons was anciently conducted."
In the reign of Justinian eggs of the Chinese mulberry-silkworm were smuggled into Europe by two monks, and the culture of silk rapidly spread through Southern Europe, where it has continued to form a staple industry ever since. In the Peloponnesus especially such large plantations of mulberry-trees were grown for the purpose of rearing silkworms as to give the peninsula its modern name of Morea. Silk is obtained in different parts of the world from the cocoons of various other moths, chiefly belonging to the group of Emperor-moths; but these products are only of local importance, and are not likely to compete with the mulberry-silkworm.
HALF-WINGED INSECTS, OR BUGS AND FROG-HOPPERS.