Silkworm
Bombyx mori
— Where the name comes from
Bombyx is from the Greek bómbyx, meaning both the silkworm and the silk; mori is Latin, “of the mulberry”, the tree whose leaves it eats. The name states the animal’s whole cycle: the silk and the mulberry. It is the only insect completely domesticated by humans, and no longer exists in the wild.
— Facts
- Group
- Insects · Insecta
- Order
- Butterflies and moths
- Habitat
- Only in cultivation, on mulberry leaves
- Range
- Native to China; reared worldwide
- Size
- Caterpillar up to 7 cm; moth 4–5 cm wingspan
- Diet
- The caterpillar eats only mulberry leaves; the adult does not feed at all
- Lifespan
- A few weeks
— Characteristics
- 01
The caterpillar spins a single thread of silk up to 1,500 metres long to build its cocoon.
- 02
The adult moth has withered wings and can neither fly nor eat.
- 03
It depends entirely on us: without rearing the species would not survive.
— What sets it apart
The silkworm is the only insect humans have domesticated outright, over more than five thousand years of rearing in China: it no longer exists in the wild, the adult moth has lost the ability to fly, and it is now white, blind to its own needs and dependent on us for everything. The secret of silk was guarded so jealously that revealing it was punishable by death, and the cocoons travelled the road that took its name from them. A thread produced by a caterpillar stitched together two ends of the world.
