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Silkworm

Bombyx mori
Pairedmoths.jpg
Paired male (above), female (below)
Silkworms3000px.jpg
Fifth instar silkworm larvae
Domesticated
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Bombycidae
Genus: Bombyx
Species: B. mori
Binomial name
Bombyx mori
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Phalaena mori Linnaeus, 1758
  • Bombyx arracanensis Moore & Hutton, 1862
  • Bombyx brunnea Grünberg, 1911
  • Bombyx croesi Moore & Hutton, 1862
  • Bombyx fortunatus Moore & Hutton, 1862
  • Bombyx meridionalis Wood-Mason, 1886
  • Bombyx sinensis Moore & Hutton, 1862
  • Bombyx textor Moore & Hutton, 1862
Silkworm (Bombyx mori)
Silkworms (Chinese characters).svg
"Silkworm" in seal script (top), Traditional (middle), and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese

The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of the domesticated silk moth, Bombyx mori (Latin: "silkworm of the mulberry tree"). It is an economically important insect, being a primary producer of silk. A silkworm's preferred food is white mulberry leaves, though they may eat other mulberry species and even osage orange. Domestic silk moths are closely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. Wild silk moths are different (having not been selectively bred) from their domestic cousins; they are not as commercially viable in the production of silk.

Sericulture, the practice of breeding silkworms for the production of raw silk, has been under way for at least 5,000 years in China, from where it spread to Korea and Japan, India and later the West. The silkworm was domesticated from the wild silkmoth Bombyx mandarina, which has a range from northern India to northern China, Korea, Japan, and the far eastern regions of Russia. The domesticated silkworm derives from Chinese rather than Japanese or Korean stock.

Silkworms were unlikely to have been domestically bred before the Neolithic age; before then, the tools required to facilitate the manufacturing of larger quantities of silk thread had not been developed. The domesticated B. mori and the wild B. mandarina can still breed and sometimes produce hybrids.

Mulberry silkworms can be categorized into three different but connected groups or types. The major groups of silkworms fall under the univoltine ('uni-'=one, 'voltine'=brood frequency) and bivoltine categories. The univoltine breed is generally linked with the geographical area within greater Europe. The eggs of this type hibernate during winter due to the cold climate, and cross-fertilize only by spring, generating silk only once annually. The second type is called bivoltine and is normally found in China, Japan, and Korea.


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Wikipedia

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