Excerpt from Inheritance in Silkworms, I
During the course of the work fifteen different silkworm races have been bred pure and used in hybridization, but a few of these have been used much more than the others. These various races (bagdad, Istrian, Japanese White, Japanese Green, Chinese White, Italian Yellow, French Yellow, Persian Yellow, Turkish and French Yellow, etc.) are distinguished from each other by Characteristics of the egg, the larva, the cocoon and, to some degree, of the adult. The varying egg char acters are Size, shape, color and degree of adhesiveness. The larval characters are Size, external appearance and, chiefly, color and pattern. The cocoon Characters are Size, Shape, character of silk as to tenacity, diameter, length, etc., of the thread, and, most conspicuously, color. The adult characters are size, and degree and character of patterning of wings.
These characteristics are all of course affected by fluctuating varia tion and by occasional sport (reversional or mutational) variation, but for cocoon colors, larval colors and patterns, adhesiveness of egg and size of egg, and certain commercial characters of the Silk, as tenacity, diameter and length of the thread, the races are well separated and have long been bred pure.
The mulberry silkworm has been domesticated and ameliorated by man for about five centuries. The exact feral Species from which it is derived is not certainly known. It seems most probable that the home of the wild progenitor was (perhaps still is) in the mountains of northern India.
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