What is Silkworm ?

If the animal is allowed to survive after spinning its cocoon, it will make a hole in the cocoon when it exits as a moth. This would cut the threads and ruin the silk. Instead, silkworm cocoons are thrown into boiling water, which kills the silkworms and also makes the cocoons easier to unravel. Often, the silkworm itself is eaten.

They prefer eating white mulberry tree leaves, as they have an attraction for the mulberry oderant called cis-jamone. They feed on all varieties of mulberry leaves.

The adult silkworms (moths) cannot fly. The silkworm-moths have wings about 2 inches wide and a white hairy body. Females and males are similarly colored. Adult silkworms have small mouths and do not eat.

The silkworm larvae shed their skin four times in a row. After the fourth shedding, the bodies of larvae turn slightly yellow and skin becomes tighter. This stage is the precursor of the 'Cocoon' stage.

In China, there is a legend that the discovery of the silkworm's silk was an ancient queen called Leizu. According to the book written in the 13th century, she was drinking tea under a tree when a cocoon fell into her tea.

The larvae go into the motionless pupal state, after enclosing themselves in an envelope of raw silk, produced by their salivary glands. It is in this stage that silk is extracted from them. If left undisturbed, the cocoon is eventually broken and a young adult moth emerges out of it.

She picked it out and as it started to wrap around her finger, she slowly felt something warm. When the milk ran out, she saw a small cocoon.

The primary use of silkworms is in the production of silk. Every year, 70 million pounds of raw silk is produced, after about 10 billion pounds of mulberry trees are consumed by the silkworm larvae!

The length of the 70 million pound fabric can easily cover about 300 round trips to the Sun.

In an instant, she realized that this cocoon was the source of the silk. She taught this to the people and it became common. There are many more legends about the silkworm.

Silkworms are a part of cuisine in both Koreas and China. A snack food called beondegi, made from boiled and seasoned silkworm pupae is very popular. Chinese like eating roasted silkworm pupae.

Khotan is an oasis, located on the southern edge of Taklamakan Desert, and was one of the first places outside of inland China to begin cultivating silk. In the far past, the Chinese guarded their knowledge of silk. It is said that a Chinese princess smuggled eggs to Khotan, hidden in her hair. After this, the way to cultivate silk was transmitted to the Western Asia, and also Europe.

The Japanese also love silk and started cultivating and weaving silk in the earlier age than the western countries.

Silkworm, name for the larva of various species of moths, indigenous to Asia and Africa but now domesticated and raised for silk production throughout most of the temperate zone.

According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, a history book published in the 3rd century, Japan exported silk to Wei, a kingdom in the northern part of the China mainland, in the 2nd century.

The culture of silkworms is called sericulture. The various species of silkworms raised today are distinguished by the quality of the silk they produce, the type of leaves on which they feed, and the number of breedings per year. The most widely raised type and the producer of the finest silk is the larva of Bombyx mori, of Asian origin. After centuries of domestication, Bombyx mori is no longer found anywhere in a natural state. The legs of the larvae have degenerated, and the adults do not fly.

The cocoon is made of one thread of raw silk from 300 to 900 meters (1000 to 3000 feet) long. The fibers are very thin. About 2,000 to 5,000 cocoons are needed to make a pound of silk.

Hatched from eggs so small that about 35,000 of them weigh only an ounce, these silkworms are immediately quite active and feed voraciously on mulberry leaves. At the end of the larval stage

If the animal is allowed to survive after spinning its cocoon, it will make a hole in the cocoon when it exits as a moth. This would cut the threads and ruin the silk.

A moist substance, fibroin, is manufactured in two silk glands located on the underside of the larva's body; mixed with a small amount of wax, it is emitted from an orifice called the spinneret, in the lip of the larva.

Instead, silkworm cocoons are thrown into boiling water, which kills the silkworms and also makes the cocoons easier to unravel. Often, the silkworm itself is eaten.

The fibroin dries quickly in the air, hardening into a half-mile-long thread of silk that makes up the cocoon. The adult moth, with a wingspread of 1.75 in. (4.5 cm), emerges from the cocoon in about two weeks. The moths mate and lay their eggs (several hundred from each female) within a week; the eggs hatch in about ten days.

The adult silkworms (moths) cannot fly. The silkworm-moths have wings about 2 inches wide and a white hairy body. Females and males are similarly colored. Adult silkworms have small mouths and do not eat.

Only enough cocoons to ensure adequate reproduction are allowed to hatch; the rest are unwound after developing for a week, and the silk is processed.

The giant silkworms used in some Asian and South American sericulture are the larvae of the closely related saturnid moths (family Saturniidae). They include the tussah moth (Antherala pernyi), the producer of tussah silk.