Bombyx mori

The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of the domesticated silkmoth, Bombyx mori (Latin: "silkworm of the mulberry tree"). It is an important economic insect since it is the producer of silk. A silkworm's preferred food is white mulberry leaves, but it may also eat the leaves of any other mulberry tree (ie, Morus rubra or Morus negra) as well as the Osage Orange. It is entirely dependent on humans for its reproduction and does not occur naturally in the wild. Sericulture has been practised for at least 5,silk pajamas,000 years in China, Korea, and Japan.

It was domesticated from the wild silkmoth Bombyx mandarina which has a range from northern India to northern China, Korea, Japan and far eastern Russia. It derives from Chinese rather than Japanese or Korean stock.[1] The breeding of silkworms cannot have originated before the Neolithic as the tools necessary to make use of the silk thread on a large scale only have become available since then. The domesticated B. mori and the wild B. mandarina can still breed and sometimes produce hybrids.