Silk industry of Cheshire Peak District. Fast flowing streams forming the River Dane, River Bollin, River Dean and River Goyt provided a moist environment and potential power to drive waterwheels in mills. The coach road from Derby to Manchester passes through, or near to each of the prominent silk towns, and later in 1831 Macclesfield Canal joined Congleton, Macclesfield and Bollington to the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Midlands and the seaports. Silk is a naturally produced fibre obtained from many species of the silk moth. In 1700 the favoured silk was produced by a moth (Bombyx mori), that used it to spin
Bombyx mandarina differ in karyotype from those of inland China. Domestic silkmoths are closer to the latter regarding mtDNA sequence data, and especially lack some genetic apomorphies of the northeastern "B. mandarina". Thus, the initial domestic stock came from inland China. "B. mandarina" is able to hybridize with "B. mori". Both in the wild and in a domesticated environment, females release pheromones and wait for males to be attracted and fly to them. However, "B. mori" males cannot fly. Hybridisation in the wild, therefore, inevitably means breeding between domestic ("B. mori") females and wild ("B. mandarina") males. Hybridization is possible in both