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We share some facts about silkworms.

The silkworm (Bombyx mori) is the caterpillar of a moth whose cocoon is used to make silk.  This insect is called the silkworm-moth and the mulberry silkworm.  It is native to Northern China.

 

The silkworm can be classified in this way:

Class:  Insecta (insects)

Order: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)

Suborder: Ditrysia (moths, butterflies and skippers)

Superfamily: Bombycoidea

Family: Bombycidae

Species: Bombyx Mori

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/activities/printouts/silkworm.shtml

Silkworms start life as eggs.  After the eggs hatch, silkworms look like thin pencil lines on a piece of paper.  Over the next month, they eat voraciously.  They quickly grow into smooth, white caterpillars about six to eight centimetres long.

Silkworms are insects.  They have three body parts:  head, thorax and abdomen.  On the bigger silkworms, it is possible to see eight pairs of legs.  They have breathing holes on the side of their body.  These holes are called spiracles.

Silkworms change their skin four times.  This is called moulting.

When the silkworm matures, about twenty six days after hatching, it spins a soft, creamy white cocoon around itself.  The cocoon protects the silkworm when it is sleeping.  The silkworm makes the cocoon with its salivary glands, from one continuous thread of fluid silk.  The silk hardens when it is in contact with the air.  It takes about three days to fully spin a cocoon and turn it into a pupa.

The silkworm sleeps for about twenty one days in the pupa, the stage between caterpillar and moth.  Then, it emerges from the pupa as a thin moth with six legs, two pairs of wings and two feathery antennae.  When the wings expand and dry, the moth is a pearly white colour.  The moth can't fly because its body is too heavy.


The moth finds another moth of the opposite sex.  They mate; the male moth dies almost immediately and the female moth lays sticky, pale yellow eggs - up to 500 tiny eggs in neat rows.  The female moth usually dies about five days later.  The eggs hatch in spring.

http://www.suekayton.com/Silkworms/lifecycle.htm

You can watch beautiful pictures of the life cycle of a silkworm in Sue Kayton's site:

http://www.suekayton.com/Silkworms/lifecycle.htm


There are some interesting facts you can read about silkworms in the following sites:
http://www.abc.net.au/creaturefeatures/facts/silkworms.htm
https://www.silkwormshop.com/silkworm_info.html



You can watch a video about the life cycle of silkworms:

You can watch a silkworm spin its cocoon in the following video: