A Familiar Introduction to the History of Insects; Being a New and Greatly Improved Edition of the Grammar of Entomology (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: in the centre of the cell, and in the interior of this it continues to work for five days. If the cells containing the spinning silk-worms are placed regularly on the line, in the order in which they begin to spin, then there will occur no difficulty in taking them off in the succession in which they stand, as the first in order on the line will be the first requiring to be wound off. After a silk-worm has been ten days in the cell, its cocoon of yellow silk will be compact and complete; this must be taken out of the cell and the exterior or waste silk stripped off, until a single thread runs by itself; an operation which will be much assisted by allowing the cocoon to float on warm water. When so much of the silk has been wound off, that the remainder appears of a thinner, paler and inferior quality, the thread should be broken, the remaining portion of the cocoon being weak, gummy, and of little value; this should be taken out of the water and laid aside, to prevent its getting entangled with the others. Within the cocoon is the chrysalis, from which the future moth is produced; these may be thrown on a tray containing bran, which will absorb the moisture that would otherwise remain on them after their long soaking. When silk-worms are reared for profit, there is a far greater number of chrysalides than are wanted; these may be given to fowls, which are exceedingly fond of them, and to which they afford a wholesome and nutritious diet. In a fortnight or three weeks after the winding of the silk, some of the chrysalides will be found cracking and opening, and the perfect moths will then appear: these are small sluggish creatures, of a pale buff colour, seldom leaving the tray, mat or paper on which they are placed, and where the females lay their eggs. As regards the hatchi...