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An oblong case in which the silkworn lies in its chrysalis state. It is formed of threads of silk spun by the worm just before leaving the larval state. From these the silk of commerce is prepared.

A building or apartment for silkworms, when feeding and forming cocoons.

One of the small white egg-shaped pupæ or cocoons of the ant, often seen in or about ant-hills, and popularly supposed to be eggs.

A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon. [Obs.] Silkworms finish their bottoms in . . . fifteen days. Mortimer.

A floss or waste obtained from the cocoon after the silk has been reeled off, used for shag.

A double cocoon, made by two silkworms.

A drawing out into threads; hence, the reeling of silk from cocoons. Ure.

The sac of silk taken from a silkworm (when ready to spin its cocoon), for the purpose of drawing it out into a thread. This, when dry, is exceedingly strong, and is used as the snood of a fish line. Blind gut. See CÆcum, n. (b).

The cocoon or chrysalis of an insect. B. Jonson.

Waste silk formed in winding off the threads from a cocoon.

hardened mud and sand. -- Mason moth (Zoöl.), any moth whose larva constructs an earthen cocoon under the soil. -- Mason shell (Zoöl.), a marine univalve shell of the genus Phorus; -- so called because it cements other shells and pebbles upon its own shell; a carrier shell. -- Mason wasp (Zoöl.), any wasp that const…

methea). Its larva feeds on the sassafras, wild cherry, and other trees, and suspends its cocoon from a branch by a silken band.

The fine, soft thread produced by various species of caterpillars in forming the cocoons within which the worm is inclosed during the pupa state, especially that produced by the larvæ of Bombyx mori.

species of bombycid moths, which spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon before changing to a pupa.

The impure residue, consisting of cocoons, propolis, etc., remaining after the wax is extracted from honeycombs.

ree pairs of spinnerets near the end, by means of which they spin threads of silk to form cocoons, or nests, to protect their eggs and young. Many species spin also complex webs to entrap the insects upon which they prey. The eyes are usually eight in number (rarely six), and are situated on the back of the cephalothor…

To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, or the like) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; -- said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.

n, and waste silk, carded and spun, in distinction from the long filaments wound from the cocoon. It is often mixed with cotton. -- Spun yarn (Naut.), a line formed of two or more rope-yarns loosely twisted.

An amorphous variety of manna obtained from the nests and cocoons of a Syrian coleopterous insect (Larinus maculatus, L. nidificans, etc.) which feeds on the foliage of a variety of thistle. It is used as an article of food, and is called also nest sugar.

A silk cloth made from the cocoons of a caterpillar other than the common silkworm, much used in Bengal and China.