LIBER XI · CAPUT 22
THE BOMBYX OF ASSYRIA
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Quartum inter haec genus est bombycum, in Assyria proveniens, mains quam supra dicta. nidos luto fingunt salis specie, adplicatos lapidi, tanta duritia, ut spiculis perforari vix possint. in iis ceras largius quam apes faciunt, dein maiorem vermiculum.
Et alia horum origo. ex grandiore vermiculo gemina protendens sui generis cornuum urica fit, dein quod vocatur bombylis, ex ea necydallus, ex hoc in sex mensibus bombyx. telas araneorum modo texunt ad vestem luxumque feminarum, quae bombycina appellatur. prima eas re- dordiri rursusque texere invenit in Coo mulier Pamphile, Plateae filia, non fraudanda gloria excogitatae rationis, ut denudet feminas vestis.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
A fourth class of this kind of insect is the bombyx, which is a native of Assyria, and is of larger size than any of those which have been previously mentioned. They construct their nests of a kind of mud which has the appearance of salt, and then fasten them to a stone, where they become so hard, that it is scarcely possible to penetrate them with a dart even. In these nests they make wax, in larger quantities than bees, and the grub which they then produce is larger.
There is another class also of these insects produced in quite a different manner. These last spring from a grub of larger size, with two horns of very peculiar appearance. The larva then becomes a caterpillar, after which it assumes the state in which it is known as bombylis, then that called necydalus, and after that, in six months, it becomes a silk-worm. These insects weave webs similar to those of the spider, the material of which is used for making the more costly and luxurious garments of females, known as “bombycina.” Pamphile, a woman of Cos, the daughter of Platea, was the first person who discovered the art of unravelling these webs and spinning a tissue therefrom; indeed, she ought not to be deprived of the glory of having discovered the art of making vestments which, while they cover a woman, at the same moment reveal her naked charms.