Identification
Scientific Name:
Bombyx mori
Common Names:
Mulberry leaf-feeding silkworm

Classification
Class: Insecta
Order: Lˇpidoptera
Family: Bombycidae
Genus: Bombyx
Species: mori

 

Habitat
Indigenous insect of China, the mulberry leaf-feeding silkworm was domesticated over 2 600 years ago. Today, this silkworm no longer exists in the wild. It is raised in China, Japan and France. Leaf-cutting ants of the Attini tribe are only found in the rainforests of the New World, from the southernmost tip of the United States to northern Argentina and Uruguay.

Profile
Gluttons and capricious, the larvae of mulberry leaf-feeding silkworms stuff themselves, as their name suggests, with mulberry leaves. Within 30 to 40 days they become 25 times bigger and 12 000 times heavier than at birth.
 
At the end of this exponential growth, the larvae cease feeding and begin weaving the cocoon that will shelter them when they become pupae. Two salivary glands behind their jaws release a thin silk thread nonstop, with which they spin their cocoon.
 
The butterfly that emerges from the cocoon is clumsy, incapable of flying due to its weight and the small size of its wings. It only lives a few short days, during which it devotes all its energy to assuring its posterity.
 
To meet sericulture needs, the cocoons are boiled to kill the insects before they emerge from the cocoon and break the silk thread.

From birth to their pupal stage, Bombyx mori ingest the equivalent of 40 000 times their weight in foliage. This means that 500 g of Bombyx mori caterpillars can consume up to 12 tons of mulberry leaves in their lifetime.
  

The Bombyx mori is able to produce 1.5 km of silk thread nonstop at a rate of 15 cm a minute.
  

To make a silk dress, it takes 500 g of silk, or 1 700 cocoons, and it takes 60 kg of mulberry leaves to obtain these 1 700 cocoons.