Antherea Silk

ANTHEREA SILK

A term often applied to the silk produced by the Antherea mylitta, a wild silkworm of India, which gives the so-called tussah silk. The worms feed on the leaves of the castor-oil plant, and give very large cocoons. The fibre is much longer than from the cocoon of the Pombyx mori, varying from 600 to 2,000 yards in length. The colour of tussah silk varies from a grey to a deep brown. Other wild silks are also frequently given this name (see Antherea)