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- Silkworm
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- Silkworm Caterpillars
The silkworm is a nondescript butterfly from the family of real silkworms, the order of mulberries. The insect is domesticated in China more than 3 thousand years ago. It plays an important economic role in the production of natural silk and silkworm breeding. In nature, there is a wild silkworm, which is considered the "derivative" of the home. It lives in East Asia, China, and Primorsky Krai of Russia.
The appearance of a moth
The silkworm butterfly is large enough. The wingspan is 60 mm. The color is off-white with brown stains. The body is divided into segments, on the head a shaggy comb antennae in males, less pronounced in females. Despite the significant size of the wings, the silkworm butterfly practically does not fly, leads a sedentary lifestyle due to domestication. The oral apparatus is underdeveloped, throughout the entire adult life, the insect does not feed.
Interesting!
The moth of the wild silkworm is quite beautiful, the coloring is close to white. In size a little smaller. At home, hybrids with different colors are bred for industrial purposes - pink, brown, brown. There is also a stripless silkworm. However, a white moth is much appreciated.
A photo of a silkworm is presented below. On it, you can carefully consider the features of the appearance of a male, female butterfly. Insect Development Life Cycle includes several stages:
- egg;
- larva;
- pupa;
- imago.
The duration of development depends directly on environmental conditions, the availability of food.
Eggs
After fertilization, the female lays from 500 to 700 eggs - gren. The shape is oval, elongated, flattened on the sides. The size of one egg does not exceed 1 mm in length, 0.5 mm in width. On the one hand, a groove along the length of the grena, on the other, a bulge. The color is off-white, milky, yellowish immediately after being deposited, purple towards the end of larval maturation. If the color scheme does not change, this means the death of the embryo inside.
The ripening period is long, when the temperature decreases, metabolic processes slow down, development stops. The female lays eggs in July-August. Development continues in early spring, when larvae emerge from the eggs. At a constant high temperature of more than +15 degrees Celsius, larvae can appear in the same year.
Interesting!
Homemade silkworm eggs are placed in the refrigerator, where the temperature is maintained from 0 to -2 degrees Celsius. Under such conditions, a strong, healthy silkworm caterpillar appears in the spring. If the wintering temperature is higher, the younger generation is born weak. This is due to the fact that the caterpillar appears too early when there is not enough food for it.
Larva
The silkworm caterpillar resembles a white worm, before they were called that. Elongated body with head, abdomen, chest. On the head are small horns - appendages. On the inside of the body there are 8 pairs of legs with which the silkworm larva moves along the tree bark, leaves. Chitinous cover is quite dense, performs the function of muscles. A photo of a silkworm caterpillar can be seen below.
Larvae appear extremely small, not more than 1 mm in length, but with good appetite. Caterpillars feed exclusively mulberry leaves, it is also a mulberry tree, which is why the name of the insect happened.
The full cycle of caterpillar development is 45 days. During this time, 4 molting occurs. Until the last stage, the caterpillar increases in size up to 30 times. In conclusion, the caterpillar forms around itself a cocoon of silk thread, for the sake of which insects are grown. If you expand one cocoon, you get a length of thread from 300 to 1600 m.
Interesting!
Dolly of a mulberry silkworm of snow-white color. Inside, a butterfly develops for several days, independently gets out. Shortly before this, you can hear the noise, feel the movement in the cocoon.
The emergence of imago
The formed silkworm moth emits a special sticky substance that can dissolve the pupal cover and threads. Initially, the head is shown, then the wings. For its birth, the butterfly chooses a time from 5 to 6 in the morning.
Within a few hours after birth, the mating process begins. A butterfly lives for about 20 days, but there are also long-livers who live up to 45 days. The male lives half as much. The butterfly doesn’t eat anything, only reproduces the younger generation. Even without a head, the female does not stop this process.
Silkworms are grown specifically for silk threads, a person independently regulates the number of insects. To obtain raw materials, moths are not allowed to be born; they place the cocoon in unfavorable conditions for the development of adults.
On a note!
The silkworm does not harm a person, they do not fight with it, specially create favorable conditions for nutrition, development. But gypsy moth butterfly is a real pest with which an intense fight is being waged. The insect damages about 300 varieties of deciduous, conifers. Not far behind unpaired Siberian silkwormdestroying any coniferous trees within its range.
