[6] The type specimen was collected by Hutton in Simla in 1837 but illness of the collector and the advent of the First Anglo-Afghan War delayed its dispatch to Europe till 1842.

[6] Bombyx huttoni is one of the moths of the superfamily Bombycoidea which have had their complete mitochondrial genome reconstructed from whole-genome Illumina sequencing data.

[8] Hutton describes the caterpillar in detail as follows:[6] When the caterpillar is newly hatched its appearance, as seen under a good lens, is as follows :- Head and pro-legs shining jet black; body dark brown, approaching to black; the first segment whitish-ash, the fourth pale rufous, as are the anal feet; tubercles disposed in longitudinal rows, giving forth short tufts of hair; a small anal tubercle on the penultimate segment: thus far there is scarcely a difference between it and the young Chinese worm.

After the first moult, the second and third segments form a globular ball, apparently out of all proportion to the rest of the body ; the general ground colour becomes creamy-white, with the fourth segment yellow, the second and third being dotted above with dull leaden-grey; the remainder closely marbled over, or variegated without any definite arrangement, with black, grey, orange, ash and yellow blending like tortoise-shell; the fleshy tubercles or spines short, conical and brown; skin smooth.

In the subsequent stages the general appearance remains the same, except that the spines are long and taper to a point, being fleshy at the base, but becoming somewhat horny towards the summits; all bend backwards in a curve except the central one on the penultimate segment, which lies down horizontally and points forward.The cocoon is whitish in colour and of a "soft loose consistence, not unlike the cocoons of some Bengal Bombyx silk worms, but is much less compact; it is formed between the leaves of the food plant".

Hutton attempted to farm the moths for silk but found it impractical due to the tendency of caterpillars to wander off trays while being raised and their resultant predation.