Butterflies, thanks to which people have the opportunity to wear silk things, appeared on the planet a long time ago. Back in the fifth millennium new era silkworm cocoons were used by humans.

Wild silkworm, without knowing it, played a big role in the history of states ancient world. You can learn about it from the video.

In our time, the range of use of the insect is very wide. Fried larvae and pupae are considered a delicacy in Korea, delicious dish, which they rush to feed guests, although Europeans do not consider them a delicacy. The larvae contain a large amount of protein, which is why they are so popular among gourmets.

In addition, the larvae are used to obtain medicines, in cosmetology, medicine, and the list goes on.

The leaders in the production of silk are India and China, the mulberry tree is found almost everywhere here, so the silkworm has all the conditions for its growth. Unfortunately, there are many more silk connoisseurs than those who are interested in this nondescript, but very hardworking insect.

Let's look at the features, characteristics of the insect, the process of reproduction and try to answer the question - what role does the silkworm play in human life.

What does an insect look like

The mulberry tree, or mulberry, is the only habitat for the silkworm. Caterpillars are so gluttonous that in one night a tree can be left without leaves, therefore, in horticultural farms, special attention is paid to preserving trees from insect invasion. Silkworm farms are always surrounded by hectares of mulberry plantations. On an industrial scale, this tree is grown in compliance with all norms and requirements in order to provide insects with good nutrition.

We owe the appearance of silk to caterpillars and butterflies, but in order to understand how an insect lives, you need to consider the whole process of its development.

The life cycle of an insect consists of the following stages:

  • adult moths mate, after which the female lays many small eggs (larvae);
  • little dark caterpillars emerge from the eggs;
  • the caterpillar lives on the mulberry, eats its leaves and grows rapidly;
  • caterpillars create silkworm cocoons, after a while the caterpillar is in the center of a cocoon of silk threads;
  • a chrysalis appears inside the skein of threads;
  • the chrysalis becomes a moth that flies out of the cocoon.

This process is interesting and continuous, like many other natural cycles.

You can learn interesting facts from the life of an ancient insect, which for many centuries was equated with gold by its value, by watching the video.

The butterfly is white, with dark spots on the wings, large, its wingspan is 6 centimeters. In females, the whiskers are almost invisible, in males they are larger.

Ability to fly for long years butterflies are lost, besides, they can easily do without food. They have become so “lazy” thanks to a person that their life is unthinkable without the guardianship and care of a person. Caterpillars, for example, are unable to find their own food.

Silkworm varieties

Two types of silkworm are known to modern science.

The first type is called monovoltine . The larvae appear only once.

The second type is called polyvoltine. More than one offspring appears.
Butterfly

Hybrids also have external differences. They differ in the color of the wings, the shape of the body, the size of the pupa and butterflies. Caterpillars also have a different color and size. The possibilities of genetics have no limits, there is even a breed of silkworm with striped caterpillars.

What are the performance indicators?

Productivity indicators are:

  • the number of cocoons, mostly dry;
  • do they unwind easily;
  • how much silk can be obtained from them;
  • quality and other characteristics of silk threads.

Caterpillar

Let's talk about grena

Grena is nothing more than silkworm eggs. They are small, oval in shape, slightly flattened on the sides, covered with an elastic shell. The color of grena changes from light yellow to dark purple, if the color does not change, this indicates that they have lost their vitality.

Grena ripens for a long time, somewhere from mid-summer to spring. In winter, metabolic processes are much slower, this allows her to safely winter. The caterpillar must hatch ahead of schedule otherwise, due to the lack of mulberry leaves, she is threatened with death. Eggs can overwinter in the refrigerator, at temperatures from 0 to -2C.


Grena

Meet the silkworm caterpillar

Caterpillars, or, as they used to be called, silk worms (photo below) look like this:

  • elongated, like all worms, the body;
  • the head, abdomen and chest are clearly defined;
  • small horns on the head;
  • chitinous covers protect the body and are muscles.

Silkworm caterpillar

The caterpillar appears small, but viable, its appetite grows, so the size increases rapidly. She eats all day long, even at night. Passing near the mulberry trees, you can hear a kind of rustling - these are the small jaws of voracious caterpillars. But their weight is not constant, because they drop it four times in their life. Great amount muscle allows the caterpillars to demonstrate real acrobatic stunts.

Watch the video and see for yourself.

For forty days, the body of the caterpillars increases significantly, they stop eating and molt, clinging to the leaf with their paws, they become motionless.

Photo of a caterpillar during sleep. Touching the caterpillar can interfere with the natural cycle, it will die, so you can not touch them. Shedding four times, they change their color four times. Silk is produced in the silk gland of caterpillars.

There was a chrysalis, but a butterfly appeared

It doesn't take long for cocoons to form. The caterpillar flies out of it like a butterfly. After molting, the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis, after which it becomes a butterfly.

You can learn from the video how caterpillars turn into a butterfly.

Before the flight of the butterfly, the cocoons begin to move, a slight noise is heard inside, this is the rustling of the chrysalis skin, which the butterfly does not need. They appear only in the morning hours - from five to six in the morning. With a special sticky substance, they dissolve part of the cocoon and get out of it.

No one considers them beauties, which cannot be said about their domestic relatives.

Butterflies have a short life - no more than 20 days, but sometimes they live for a whole month. Mating and laying eggs are their main occupation, they neglect food, since they have no opportunity to absorb and digest food. But there is no doubt about the strength of gluing grena to a tree or a leaf.

That's the whole short life of a worker - a silkworm, for almost five thousand years benefiting a person.

Information for the curious!

  • Besides the fact that the insect cannot fly, it is also blind.
  • It takes only three or four days to create a cocoon, but during this time a silk thread 600-900 meters long is obtained. There are cases when the unwinding thread was 1500 meters long. In terms of strength, a silk thread can be compared with steel, their diameter is the same, and it is not so easy to break the thread.
  • The quality of a silk product can be judged by its color, the lighter it is, the better. Silk fabrics cannot be bleached.
  • Moths and mites that can ruin clothes do not pose a threat to silk fabrics. And the explanation for this is a substance that is in the saliva of an insect, it is called sericin. To this should be added the fact that silk has one more advantage - its hypoallergenic properties. Elastic and durable threads have found application not only in the textile industry. They are used in medicine, aviation and aeronautics.

Class - Insects

Detachment - Lepidoptera

Family - silkworms

Genus/Species - bombyx mori

Basic data:

DIMENSIONS

Length: caterpillar - 8.5 cm.

Wingspan: 5 cm

Wings: Two pairs.

Mouth apparatus: the caterpillar has one pair of jaws, while the adult butterfly has oral apparatus atrophied.

BREEDING

Number of eggs: 300-500.

Development: from egg to pupa - time depends on temperature; from pupa to hatching butterfly 2-3 weeks.

LIFE STYLE

Habits: mulberry silkworm (see photo) is a domesticated insect species.

What does it eat: leaves mulberry tree.

Lifespan: an adult silkworm lives 3-5 days, a caterpillar - 4-6 weeks.

RELATED SPECIES

There are about 300 species of silkworms in the world, such as oak Chinese silkworm and atlas.

The ancient Chinese domesticated the silkworm 4,500 years ago. They obtained silk from cocoons woven by silkworm caterpillars to turn into an adult butterfly. A beautifully woven cocoon of a silkworm is formed by a single silk thread, the length of which can reach one kilometer.

SILKMOTH AND MAN

A natural fiber called silk is also produced by many other types of insects, but only the silkworm produces enough of it. in large numbers and also different high quality, therefore it is advantageous to breed the silkworm in captivity. The ancient Chinese invented a way to unwind the fiber and turn it into a strong thread. The first silk products appeared from the cocoons of wild silkworms. However, soon the Chinese began to breed them in artificial conditions and strove to choose as large and heavy cocoons as possible for further breeding. As a result of such attempts, modern silkworms were bred, which are much larger than their own. wild ancestors. True, they do not know how to fly and are completely dependent on humans.

Silkworm cocoons are softened with hot steam, put in hot water, and then unwound at special factories, getting yarn. To make fabrics, the threads are always twisted several threads together because they are very thin.

LIFE CYCLE

Silkworm currently not found in the wild. The ancient Chinese domesticated the silkworm 4,500 years ago. Since all this time a careful selection of individuals was carried out for their further breeding in captivity, the modern silkworm is much larger than its distant ancestor. Also, he is unable to fly. The caterpillar reaches its maximum size six weeks after birth. Before the formation of a cocoon, she stops feeding, becomes restless, crawls back and forth in search of a convenient place to securely attach herself. Attached to the stem, the caterpillar begins to spin a silk cocoon. Silk fiber is a secretion of paired arachnoid glands, which are located in several longitudinal folds on the body of the caterpillar and reach its lower lip. When turning into a chrysalis, the caterpillar releases one whole thread up to 1 kilometer long, which it wraps around itself. Silkworm cocoons can be different color- yellowish, white, bluish, pink or greenish. After the transformation of the caterpillar into a chrysalis, the next stage begins - the transformation into an adult butterfly.

WHAT DOES IT FEED

Caterpillars should eat almost continuously. They feed on mulberry leaves, eating them at an incredible rate.

The caterpillar, born from an egg, has a length of 0.3 cm and weighs 0.0004 g, and after a while its length is already up to 8.5 cm, and its weight is 3.5 g. Sometimes the caterpillars also eat the leaves of other plants . However, observations have shown that caterpillars that are fed a mixed diet grow much more slowly, and the quality of the silk fiber they produce changes - the thread becomes thicker than that of caterpillars that were fed only mulberry leaves. Caterpillars grow up to 6 weeks, then they stop eating and spin a cocoon, inside which they turn into an imago (adult).

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Now cheap synthetic fabrics have greatly supplanted natural silk, and yet products made from it, as before, remain popular.

As early as 4,000 years ago, silkworms were bred in China to produce silk. For a long time already, this moth and its larvae cannot exist without human help. Adult insects have completely lost the ability to fly, and caterpillars would rather die of starvation than crawl in search of suitable food. For more than 2,000 years, China has maintained a monopoly on sericulture. For any attempt to take out grena (silkworm egg laying), the death penalty threatened. There was an ancient caravan route, which was called “The Great Silk Road”. The fact is that silk fabrics were very much appreciated in the countries of Europe and the Middle East. And not only for the beauty of silk clothes. The most important thing is that in such clothes a person was less bothered by lice and fleas! That is why for many centuries the silk trade has been the main source of income for the people of China. In 552, the pilgrim monks managed to deliver the silkworm to Constantinople. Then Emperor Justinian issued a special order, which he ordered to engage in sericulture in Byzantine Empire. China's monopoly on silk has come to an end. IN Western Europe began to breed silkworms in 1203-1204, when the Venetians after IV crusade brought home silkworm grena.

INTERESTING FACTS. DO YOU KNOW WHAT...

  • The annual production of raw silk is about 45 thousand tons. The main producers are Japan and China, South Korea, Uzbekistan and India.
  • According to legend, the silkworm came to Europe thanks to two monks who hid it in a reed.
  • Legend tells that China lost its monopoly on silk production in 400 AD, when a Chinese princess married an Indian raja, leaving her country, secretly took silkworm eggs with her.
  • Silk from silkworm threads is called "noble" silk.
  • Silk yarn is made from the silk of the Chinese oak silkworm (Chinese oak saturnia).

LIFE CYCLE OF THE SILKMOTH

Eggs: the female lays up to 500 eggs per leaf and dies soon after.

Larvae, hatched from eggs, black, covered with hairs. Hatching time depends on temperature.

Caterpillar: during development, the larva molts several times until it is white and smooth, without eyelashes.

Cocoon: the caterpillar intensively feeds on leaves for 6 weeks, and then begins to look for a suitable twig. On it she spins a cocoon, from silk, with which she surrounds herself.

Adult silkworm: the butterfly mates shortly after emerging from the cocoon. The female secretes a special substance with a strong odor, which the male catches. By smell, with the help of special hairs on enlarged antennae, the male determines the location of the female.


WHERE Dwells

The silkworm is native to Asia. Nowadays, silkworms are grown in Japan and China. There are many farms in India, Turkey, Pakistan, as well as in France and Italy.

PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION

The ancient Chinese domesticated the silkworm 4,500 years ago. Now the silkworm is bred on special farms.

Animals in history. Silkworm. Video (00:24:27)

MULBERRY SILKMOTH Grade 6. Video (00:02:42)

Silkworm mulberry as a business idea. Video (00:05:22)

The silkworm is a long-forgotten business, but nowadays it does not have much competition ... And silk, as before, has a high cost ...

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Silkworm. Video (00:02:12)

How silkworm is grown. Video (00:09:53)

The life of a silkworm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silkworm
scientific classification

intermediate ranks
International scientific name

bombyx mori Linnaeus, 1758

Description

Relatively large butterfly with a wingspan of 40-60 mm. The color of the wings is off-white with more or less distinct brownish bands. Forewings with notch on outer margin behind apex. The antennae of the male are strongly comb-shaped, the females are comb-shaped. Silkworm butterflies, in fact, have practically lost the ability to fly. Females are especially inactive. Butterflies have underdeveloped mouthparts and do not feed throughout their lives (aphagia).

Life cycle

The silkworm is represented by monovoltine (give one generation a year), bivoltine (give two generations a year) and polyvoltine (give several generations a year) breeds.

Egg

After mating, the female lays eggs (500 to 700 on average), the so-called grena. Grena has an oval (elliptical) shape, flattened laterally, somewhat thicker at one pole; soon after its deposition, one impression appears on both flattened sides. At the thinner pole there is a rather significant depression, in the middle of which there is a tubercle, and in the center of it there is a hole - a micropyle, designed for the passage of the seed thread. The size of grena is about 1 mm long and 0.5 mm wide, but it varies considerably between breeds. In general, breeds of European, Asia Minor, Central Asian and Persian give a larger gren than Chinese and Japanese. Egg laying can last up to three days. Diapause in the silkworm falls on the egg stage. Diapausing eggs develop in spring next year, and non-diapausing - in the same year.

Caterpillar

A caterpillar comes out of the egg (so-called silkworm), which grows rapidly and molts four times. After the caterpillar has gone through four molts, its body becomes slightly yellow. The caterpillar develops within 26-32 days. The duration of development depends on the temperature and humidity of the air, the quantity and quality of food, etc. The caterpillar feeds exclusively on mulberry leaves (mulberry tree). Therefore, the spread of sericulture is associated with the places where this tree grows.

While pupating, the caterpillar weaves a cocoon, the shell of which consists of a continuous silk thread ranging in length from 300-900 meters to 1500 m in the largest cocoons. In the cocoon, the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis. The color of the cocoon can be different: pinkish, greenish, yellow, etc. But for the needs of industry, only silkworm breeds with white cocoons are currently bred.

The release of butterflies from cocoons usually occurs on the 15-18th day after pupation. But the silkworm is not allowed to survive to this stage - the cocoons are kept for 2-2.5 hours at a temperature of about 100 ° C, which kills the pupa and simplifies the unwinding of the cocoon.

Human use

Sericulture

Sericulture- breeding of silkworms to obtain silk. According to Confucian texts, the production of silk using the silkworm began around the 27th century BC. e. , although archaeological research suggests breeding silkworms as early as the Yangshao period (5000 BC). In the first half of the 1st century A.D. e. sericulture came to ancient Khotan, and at the end of the 3rd century - to India. Later it was introduced in other Asian countries, in Europe, in the Mediterranean. Sericulture has become an important industry in the economies of a number of countries such as China, Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Brazil, Russia, Italy and France. Today, China and India are the two main producers of silk, accounting for about 60% of the world's annual production.

Other uses

In China and Korea, fried silkworm pupae are eaten.

Dried caterpillars infected with a fungus Beauveria bassiana used in Chinese traditional medicine.

Silkworm in art

  • In 2004, the famous multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and leader of his own group Oleg Sakmarov wrote a song called "Silkworm".
  • In 2006 Flëur released a song called "Silkworm".
  • In 2007, Oleg Sakmarov released the album "Silkworm".
  • In 2009, the Melnitsa group released the Wild Herbs album, on which a song called Silkworm sounds.
  • In the second series of the Atomic Forest animated series, there are intelligent silkworms.
  • In 2014, Robert Galbraith released his second Cormoran Strike novel, The Silkworm.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing the silkworm

At the beginning of winter, Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky and his daughter arrived in Moscow. In his past, in his intelligence and originality, in particular in the weakening at that time of enthusiasm for the reign of Emperor Alexander, and in accordance with the anti-French and patriotic trend that reigned at that time in Moscow, Prince Nikolai Andreevich immediately became an object of special reverence for Muscovites and the center of the Moscow opposition to the government.
The prince has grown very old this year. Sharp signs of old age appeared in him: unexpected falling asleep, forgetfulness of the nearest events and memory of long-standing ones, and the childish vanity with which he assumed the role of the head of the Moscow opposition. Despite the fact that when the old man, especially in the evenings, went out to tea in his fur coat and powdered wig, and, touched by someone, began his abrupt stories about the past, or even more abrupt and sharp judgments about the present, he aroused in all his guests the same sense of respect. For visitors, this whole old house with huge dressing tables, pre-revolutionary furniture, these lackeys in powder, and the last century himself, a tough and smart old man with his meek daughter and pretty Frenchwoman, who were in awe of him, represented a majestically pleasant sight. But the visitors did not think that in addition to these two or three hours, during which they saw the owners, there were another 22 hours a day, during which the secret inner life of the house went on.
IN Lately in Moscow, this inner life became very difficult for Princess Marya. She was deprived in Moscow of those of her best joys - conversations with God's people and solitude - which refreshed her in the Bald Mountains, and did not have any benefits and joys of metropolitan life. She did not go out into the world; everyone knew that her father would not let her go without him, and he himself could not travel due to ill health, and she was no longer invited to dinners and evenings. Princess Marya completely abandoned hope for marriage. She saw the coldness and bitterness with which Prince Nikolai Andreevich received and sent away young people who could be suitors, who sometimes came to their house. Princess Marya had no friends: on this visit to Moscow, she was disappointed in her two closest people. M lle Bourienne, with whom she could not be completely frank before, now became unpleasant to her and for some reason she began to move away from her. Julie, who was in Moscow and to whom Princess Mary wrote for five years in a row, turned out to be a complete stranger to her when Princess Mary again met with her personally. Julie at this time, on the occasion of the death of her brothers, having become one of the richest brides in Moscow, was in the midst of social pleasures. She was surrounded by young people who, as she thought, suddenly appreciated her dignity. Julie was in that period of an aging socialite who feels that her last chance of marriage has come, and now or never her fate must be decided. Princess Mary, with a sad smile, recalled on Thursdays that she now had no one to write to, since Julie, Julie, from whose presence she had no joy, was here and saw her every week. She, like an old emigrant who refused to marry the lady with whom he spent several years of his evenings, regretted that Julie was here and she had no one to write to. Princess Mary in Moscow had no one to talk to, no one to believe her grief, and much new grief has been added during this time. The deadline for the return of Prince Andrei and his marriage was approaching, and his order to prepare his father for that was not only not fulfilled, but, on the contrary, the matter seemed to be completely spoiled, and the reminder of Countess Rostova pissed off the old prince, who had already been out of sorts for most of the time. . A new grief that has recently been added for Princess Marya was the lessons that she gave to her six-year-old nephew. In her relations with Nikolushka, she recognized with horror in herself the quality of her father's irritability. How many times did she tell herself that she should not allow herself to get excited while teaching her nephew, almost every time she sat down with a pointer at the French alphabet, she so wanted to quickly, easily pour her knowledge out of herself into a child who was already afraid that here was her aunt she would be angry that, at the slightest inattention on the part of the boy, she shuddered, hurried, got excited, raised her voice, sometimes pulled his hand and put him in a corner. Putting him in a corner, she herself began to weep over her evil, bad nature, and Nikolushka, imitating her sobs, would come out of the corner without permission, come up to her and pull her wet hands away from her face, and console her. But more, more than anything else, the Princess was irritated by her father's irritability, which was always directed against her daughter and had recently reached the point of cruelty. If he had forced her to bow down all night, if he had beaten her, forced her to carry firewood and water, it would never have occurred to her that her situation was difficult; but this loving tormentor, the most cruel because he loved and for that he tormented himself and her, deliberately knew how not only to insult and humiliate her, but also to prove to her that she was always and in everything to blame. Recently, it has appeared new feature, which tormented Princess Mary most of all - this was his greater rapprochement with m lle Bourienne. The thought that came to him, in the first minute after receiving the news of his son's intention, was the joke that if Andrei marries, then he himself marries Bourienne - apparently he liked him, and with stubbornness lately (as it seemed to Princess Mary) only in order to offend her, he showed a special kindness to m lle Bourienne and showed his displeasure to his daughter by showing love to Bourienne.

Silkworm- well known insect. The wild species of this species was first seen in the Himalayas. The silkworm has been domesticated for a very long time - from the third millennium BC.

He gained great fame in connection with the unique ability to create such cocoons, which are the raw material for obtaining real silk itself. Systematics of the silkworm- belongs to the genus Silkworms of the real family of the same name. Silkworm is a representative detachment butterflies.

The main habitat of the insect is the regions of Southeast Asia with subtropical climate. It also occurs on Far East. Silkworms are bred in many regions, but the only requirement is that mulberry must sprout in those places, since silkworm larvae feed exclusively on it.

An adult is able to live only 12 days, during which it does not eat, since it does not even have a mouth. Surprisingly, silkworm butterfly can't even fly.

Pictured is a silkworm butterfly

As can be seen on photo, silkworm looks rather unattractive and looks like the most common moth. Its wingspan is only 2 centimeters, and their color varies from whitish to light gray. It has a pair of antennae, which are abundantly covered with bristles.

Lifestyle of the silkworm

The silkworm is a well-known garden pest, as its larvae are very voracious and can greatly harm garden plants. Getting rid of it is not so easy, and for gardeners the appearance of this insect is a real disaster.

Silkworm life cycle includes 4 stages and is about two months. sedentary and live only to lay eggs. The female lays up to 700 eggs, which are oval in shape. The laying process can take up to three days.

Types of silkworm

Nun silkworm living in the forest. Wings black and white, antennae with long serrations. Reproduction occurs once a year, in summer. Caterpillars are very harmful coniferous trees, beech, oak and birch.

Butterfly silkworm nun

Ringed - bears this name because of the characteristic shape of the masonry - in the form of an egg. The clutch itself contains up to three hundred eggs. It is the main enemy of apple trees. The body of the butterfly is covered with a light brown fluff. ringed silkworm- it is his cocoons that are the main raw material for the production of silk.

Butterfly ringed silkworm

Pine silkworm- Pine pest. The color of the wings is brownish, close to the color of pine bark. Quite large butterflies - females reach a wingspan of up to 9 centimeters, males are smaller.

Pine silkworm butterfly

gypsy moth- the most dangerous pest, as it can affect up to 300 plant species. The name is due to the large difference between the female and male in appearance.

Gypsy moth butterfly

Nutrition of the silkworm

It feeds mainly on mulberry leaves. The larvae are very voracious and grow very quickly. They can eat figs, breadfruit and dairy trees, ficuses and other trees of this species.

In captivity, lettuce leaves are sometimes eaten, but this has a bad effect on the health of the caterpillar, and therefore on the quality of the cocoon. IN this moment scientists are trying to create a special food for the silkworm.

Reproduction and life span of the silkworm

Reproduction in this insect takes place in the same way as most others. Between the time the female lays her eggs and the first appearance of the caterpillars, about ten days pass.

At artificial breeding for this, the temperature is set to 23-25 ​​degrees. Silkworm caterpillar each subsequent day eats more and more food.

Pictured are silkworm caterpillars

On the fifth day, the larva stops feeding, freezes, and the next day, when it emerges from the old skin, it starts feeding again. Thus, four molts occur. At the end of development, the larva is one month old. Under her lower jaw is the same papilla from which a silk thread stands out.

silkworm thread, despite its very small thickness, can withstand up to 15 grams of cargo. It can be isolated even by newly born larvae. Very often it is used as a saving tool - in case of danger, the caterpillar can hang on it.

In the photo, a silkworm thread

At the end life cycle the caterpillar feeds little, and by the beginning of the construction of the cocoon, feeding stops completely. At this time, the gland that secretes the silk thread is so full that it always reaches for the caterpillar.

At the same time, the caterpillar exhibits restless behavior, trying to find a place to build a cocoon - a small branch. The cocoon is built within three to four days, and it takes up to a kilometer of silk thread.

There are cases when several caterpillars twist one cocoon for two, three or four individuals, but this rarely happens. Myself silkworm cocoon weighs about three grams, has a length of up to two centimeters, but some specimens reach a length of up to six centimeters.

Pictured is a silkworm cocoon

They vary slightly in shape - it can be round, oval, ovoid or slightly flattened. The color of the cocoon is often white, but there are specimens whose color is close to golden, and even greenish.

The silkworm hatches in about three weeks. It does not have a jaw, so it makes a hole with saliva, which eats away at the cocoon. With artificial breeding, the pupae are killed, otherwise the cocoon damaged after the butterfly is not suitable for obtaining silk thread. In some countries, the slaughtered chrysalis is considered a delicacy.

Silkworm breeding is widespread. To do this, mechanized farms are created for the production of yarn, from which a real yarn is subsequently obtained. silkworm silk.

Pictured is a silk thread farm

The clutch of eggs laid by the female is kept in an incubator until the larvae appear. As food, the larvae receive the usual food - mulberry leaves. In the premises, all air parameters are controlled for the successful development of the larvae.

Pupation occurs on special branches. When creating a cocoon, males secrete more silk thread, so silkworm breeders try to increase the number of males.

Silkworm (lat. bombyx mori) is a nondescript little butterfly with off-white wings that can't fly at all. But it is thanks to her efforts that women of fashion all over the world have been able to enjoy outfits made of beautiful soft fabrics for more than 5000 years, the brilliance and colorful transfusion of which fascinate at first sight.

Silk has always been a valuable commodity. The ancient Chinese - the first manufacturers of silk fabric - kept their secret securely. For its disclosure, an immediate and terrible death penalty was due. They domesticated silkworms as early as the 3rd millennium BC, and to this day these small insects work to satisfy the vagaries of modern fashion.

There are monovoltine, bivoltine and polyvoltine silkworm breeds in the world. The former give only one generation per year, the latter two, and the third several generations per year. An adult butterfly has a wingspan of 40-60 mm, it has an underdeveloped mouth apparatus, so it does not feed throughout its entire life. short life. The wings of the silkworm are off-white in color, brownish bandages are clearly visible on them.

Immediately after mating, the female lays eggs, the number of which varies from 500 to 700 pieces. The laying of a silkworm (like all other representatives of the peacock-eye family) is called grena. It has an elliptical shape, flattened on the sides, with one side slightly larger than the other. On a thin pole there is a recess with a tubercle and a hole in the center, which is necessary for the passage of the seed thread. The size of grena depends on the breed - in general, Chinese and Japanese silkworms have less grena than European and Persian ones.

Silkworms (caterpillars) emerge from the egg, to which all the views of silk producers are riveted. They grow in size very quickly, shedding four times in their lifetime. The entire cycle of growth and development lasts from 26 to 32 days, depending on the conditions of detention: temperature, humidity, food quality, etc.

Silkworms feed on the leaves of the mulberry tree (mulberry), so silk production is possible only in places where it grows. When the time of pupation comes, the caterpillar wraps itself in a cocoon, consisting of a continuous silk thread with a length of three hundred to one and a half thousand meters. Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar transforms into a chrysalis. In this case, the color of the cocoon can be very different: yellowish, greenish, pinkish or some other. True, only silkworms with white cocoons are bred for industrial needs.

Ideally, the butterfly should emerge from the cocoon on the 15-18th day, however, unfortunately, it is not destined to live up to this time: the cocoon is placed in a special oven and kept for about two to two and a half hours at a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. Of course, the pupa dies, and the process of unwinding the cocoon is greatly simplified. In China and Korea, fried pupae are eaten, in all other countries they are considered just “production waste”.

Sericulture has long been an important industry in China, Korea, Russia, France, Japan, Brazil, India and Italy. Moreover, about 60% of all silk production falls on India and China.