Domestic silk moth
The domestic silk moth is a pale moth that cannot fly. Its caterpillar is called the silkworm, and it spins a cocoon from one very long silk thread. People have kept silk moths for at least 5,000 years to make soft, shiny silk cloth.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
One cocoon is made from a single silk thread that can be 300 to 900 metres long.
The silk comes out of special glands near the silkworm's mouth.
It can no longer live in the wild. It needs people to help it have babies.
Its wild cousin, the wild silk moth, still lives in China, Korea, Japan and Russia.
The silkworm sheds its skin four times before it wraps itself in its cocoon.
Most asked questions about Domestic silk moth
?What does a silkworm eat?
Mulberry leaves, especially from the white mulberry tree.
?Can the silk moth fly?
No. After thousands of years of living with people, it has lost the ability to fly.
?How is silk made?
The silkworm spins a cocoon from one long silk thread, and people unwind the thread to make cloth.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bombyx mori
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Bombycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Bombycidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Silkworm
Where the facts come from
- Bombyx mori (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Oakenking at en.wikipedia. CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Atlas moth
Luna moth
Hummingbird hawk-moth
Isabella tiger moth
Polyphemus moth
Cecropia moth
Indian red scorpion
Black lace-weaver
Blue-eyed ensign wasp
Smoky brown cockroach
Confused flour beetle
Red flour beetle