Silkworm Moth, Stages of Reproduction, 1878

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A silkworm moth at various stages of reproduction. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar or imago of the domestic silkmoth, Bombyx mori. 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 silkmoths are closely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. 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 India, Korea, Japan, and the West. Kano December 1878.

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Photo credit: © Science History Images / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: 1800s, 1878, 19th, bombyx, century, cocoon, historic, historical, history, japan, japanese, making, manufacture, manufacturing, mori, moth, nineteenth, production, reproduction, silk, silk-making, silkmaking, silkworm, stages, textile