Ringed silkworm: how a brown butterfly harms the garden and ways to combat it

Types of silkworm

Nun silkworm
living in the forest. The wings are black and white, the antennae have long serrations. Reproduction occurs once a year, in summer. The caterpillars greatly damage coniferous trees, beech, oak and birch.

Nun silkworm butterfly

Ringed - has this name because of the characteristic shape of the clutch - in the form of an egg. The clutch itself contains up to three hundred eggs. It is the main enemy of apple trees. The body of the butterfly is covered with light brown fluff. Ringed silkworm

– it is its cocoons that are the main raw material for silk production.

Ringed silkworm butterfly

Pine silkworm

- a pest of pine trees. The color of the wings is brownish, close to the color of pine bark. Quite large butterflies - females reach a wingspan of up to 9 centimeters, males are smaller.

Pine moth butterfly

Gypsy moth

– the most dangerous pest, as it can affect up to 300 plant species. The name comes from the large difference between the female and the male in appearance.

Gypsy moth butterfly

How is silk obtained?

The main goal in silk production is to obtain the same silk thread that the caterpillar produces to create a cocoon. 8–10 days after pupation, the cocoons are heated with hot air (about +90⁰С). The pupa inside dies. The cocoons are sorted by color and size, then washed in hot and cold water to dissolve the adhesive holding the threads together.

How is silk made?

Next, the process of unwinding the cocoon begins. Since the threads are very thin, they are connected in 3 to 10 pieces. The resulting fiber is wound into yarn, and then the raw material is sent to weaving mills, where silk is produced from it.

By the way, the dead pupae remaining after unwinding the cocoons are considered a very valuable nutritious dish.

Rezucha mosaic virus

The disease, caused by a virus and spread by nematodes, manifests itself in the fact that recently rooted honeysuckle seedlings have sharply shortened internodes, and uncontrolled growth of lateral shoots from axillary buds begins. The foliage does not develop, the plants wither and die.

Measures to combat this honeysuckle disease include careful selection of planting material, as well as the mandatory destruction of shrubs with signs of the disease.

If honeysuckle shoots were damaged by frost in winter, they must be cut out in a timely manner, otherwise the same fungi quickly settle and develop on the wound surface, causing the shoots to dry out and leaves to fall off.

Where does it live?

For a comfortable life and active production of thread, the silkworm needs specific climatic conditions. Without them, insects are not able to perform their main function - the formation of cocoons and pupation. In this regard, the insect lives in areas with a warm and moderately humid climate, where there are no serious temperature changes. The vegetation should be rich, in particular many mulberry trees.

Today, the habitat is determined by the active work of mulberry production. For this purpose, insects were brought to many regions with a suitable climate in order to breed them artificially. It is China and India that have the status of the main countries for the residence of “useful” silkworms. 60% of the silk produced worldwide is produced here. Silkworms are also actively raised in Korea, Japan, Brazil, Russia, and some European countries.

Gypsy moth

Damages all fruit and many forest species. The female is larger than the male (not a match for him - hence the name), with a wingspan of up to 75 mm. Its forewings are yellow-white, with faintly expressed dark transverse stripes. The abdomen is thick, covered with dense white hairs. The caterpillar is 6-8 cm long, dark gray, with three longitudinal yellowish stripes on the back. The first five segments of the body have two blue warts on top. On the remaining segments the warts are red. Each wart produces a tuft of long black hairs.

Generation is one-year. The eggs overwinter on the bark of tree trunks at a height of up to 0.5 m from the soil, partly on the walls of buildings, at the base of fence stakes, etc. In the spring, before the apple tree blooms, caterpillars are born from the eggs. They crawl along the trunk and branches into the crown. The caterpillars are covered with long hairs; they are easily picked up by the wind and transported over long distances.

Caterpillars eat leaves; buds, flowers. With age, the gluttony of caterpillars increases.

Sometimes they completely bare the trees. Mass reproduction of silkworms usually takes place in garden protection and forest belts, from where the pest penetrates into gardens. Therefore, fruit trees adjacent to forest plantations are more infested with this pest.

In the second half of June, the caterpillars finish feeding and pupate in a cobweb cocoon among the leaves, on the bark of trunks and thick branches. The butterfly flight takes place at the end of June - beginning of July. Females lay eggs on the bark of the base of the trunks and in other places. The female covers the laying of eggs on top with brownish-yellow hairs from her abdomen. By autumn, caterpillars form in the eggs, but they do not leave the egg shell until spring.

Control measures. Scraping and subsequent destruction of egg clutches from fruit trees and self-defense plantings. Spraying trees with karbofos or kinmiks before flowering against caterpillars. At an air temperature of +20° C, spraying with biological products is effective against caterpillars.

Embryonic period

Females lay eggs in depressions in the bark of stumps and trunks. They release them several at a time, in bunches. At the same time, females mix eggs with yellowish-gray fluff, which also covers them on top. After laying the masonry, the individual may die immediately. Clumps of eggs may cover the bases of trunks in fluffy continuous rings. In some cases, masonry is found on stones, structures, and various buildings. The eggs overwinter well in frost and high humidity conditions. They do not lose their viability even after a ten-day stay under water. Mating can be complicated by rainy weather in the summer. In such cases, females lay predominantly unfertilized eggs, in which larvae do not form.

Diagnostic signs

Butterflies

especially during periods of mass reproduction, they are so diverse in color and size that it is difficult to pick a pair of butterflies that are completely similar to each other. Females have short combed antennae and a thick body; their wingspan is from 6 to 10 cm. Males have clearly combed antennae and a more slender body; their wingspan is from 4 to 7.5 cm. The forewings of both sexes are light brown or light gray to almost black. Three jagged stripes run across them; one along the outer edge of the snout, the second near its middle and the third closer to its base. In close proximity to the dark stripes, often along the outer edge of the wing, there are whitish stripes consisting of semilunar spots and strokes. The field between the main and median stripes is often darker in color. Sometimes the main and median stripes are weakly expressed or even completely absent. Near the middle of the main stripe there is a semi-lunar white spot, which is always present in butterflies. The hind wings are light brown without a pattern. Below, both pairs of wings are brown, and there is one wide dark brown curved band running along them. The head and chest are colored similar to the front wings, the abdomen is similar to the hind wings.

Testicles

spherical, 2.0×1.5 mm in size, with a dark dot at the apex. Freshly laid eggs are bluish-green, then turn grey. They are smaller and somewhat lighter than those of the pine silkworm, they are deposited in irregular groups from several to 100 pieces and mainly on needles, twigs, twigs, the bark of branches and trunks. When the caterpillar emerges from the egg, it eats part of the shell.

Caterpillars

up to 11 cm long, varied in color - from gray to almost black. On the meso- and metanotum there are transverse bands of steel-blue burning hairs that open wide when the caterpillar raises the front part of the body and bends its head (threat pose). On the next seven abdominal tergites there are dark horseshoe-shaped spots. The dorsal side and spots on the sides are covered with silvery-white spear-shaped scales, developed to varying degrees in individuals. On the sides of the body, areas of skin are ocher-yellow, sometimes forming an almost continuous stripe. The body is covered with hairs, the longest and densest on its sides and in front on the prothorax. The head is round, matte, dark brown. Ventral side between legs with yellowish-brown or orange spots, not forming a continuous stripe.

The stool of the caterpillars is cylindrical, with six longitudinal and two transverse grooves, very similar to the stool of the pine silkworm. The pieces of needles in it are hardly noticeable.

Doll

up to 5 cm long, pitch-brown to black. Cremaster in the form of a transverse convex plate, densely covered with very small rufous hooked and simple setae. The last segments have short and sparse hairs. The pupa rests in a parchment-like, brownish or dirty-gray cocoon, into which tufts of blue, burning caterpillar hairs are woven, giving the cocoon its burning properties. Cocoons are located on branches, between needles, on trunks.

At the beginning of mass reproduction, dark-colored individuals of butterflies and caterpillars dominate, as in other mass pine needles and leaf-eating insects.

What is a pest

The gypsy moth is a butterfly. It belongs to the family of lepidoptera, order Lepidoptera. The insect received this name due to the fact that there are significant differences between female and male individuals:

• the female has a thick, massive abdomen, a large wingspan that can reach 75-90 mm;
• the male has a thin abdomen, and the maximum wingspan is only 40-57 mm;
• in the female, the color of the wings is off-white, with black zigzag lines visible on them;
• The color of the wings of males is brownish-gray with a pattern in the form of intermittent dark stripes.

Even if you don’t carefully look at a photo of a gypsy moth, these differences are immediately noticeable. Butterflies prefer dry places with sparse forest and plenty of daylight. In terms of the number of outbreaks of reproduction, the silkworm occupies a leading position among this type of pest.

Gypsy moth

Silkworm on an apple tree: how to fight with chemical and folk methods

Drug: the name of the pesticide, its formulation, content of active substance, registrant, state registration number, restrictions and expiration date of registration are indicated. Numerical designations separated by fractions from (1) to (4) after the registrant indicate the hazard classes of the drugs. The numerator is the hazard class for humans, the denominator is for bees in field conditions. (P) – prohibition of use in the sanitary zone around fishery reservoirs at a distance of 500 m from the flood line at maximum flood waters, but not closer than 2 km from the existing banks. For pesticides intended for pre-sowing treatment of seeds, it is prohibited to treat seeds in the specified zone; sowing of treated seeds is permitted.

Application rate: the application rates for pesticides are indicated (by preparation): for solid formulations – in kg/ha (for seed protectants – in kg/t), for liquid formulations – in l/ha (for seed protectants – in l/t ). In other cases, application rates given in other units of measurement are indicated next to the numerical value of the pesticide application rate. The application rates of herbicides are given based on continuous tillage; with the belt application method, the application rate is reduced in proportion to the decrease in the cultivated area. (A) – authorization of aerial treatments in these regulations of application. (L) – permission to use the drug on private farms. Regulations for the use of the drug on private farms are presented in a separate line.

Culture: Cultures are indicated. Two crops, for example, tomato and cucumber, are indicated for both open and protected ground, unless specifically stated.

Harmful object: harmful objects against which this pesticide is recommended are indicated; for desiccants and plant growth regulators - the purpose of the drug.

Method, processing time, application features: the method, processing time, application features are posted. The expression “Consumption – 400 l/ha”, “Consumption – 12 l/t”, etc. means the flow rate of the working fluid (solution, emulsion or suspension), unless “Consumption of the working fluid” is indicated.

Waiting period (number of treatments): waiting times are indicated, with the number of treatments in parentheses. The waiting period is the time interval between treatment with the drug and harvesting, indicated in days. If the use of a pesticide is clearly one-time, for example, pre-sowing seed treatment, then a dash (-) or (1) may be indicated in the sixth column.

Time limits for manual (mechanized) work: the time for people to enter areas treated with pesticides to carry out manual (mechanized) work to care for plants is given in days.

Natural enemies

In nature, the enemies of the silkworm are:

• birds (the sparrowhawk especially likes the silkworm);
• insectivores that eat larvae and butterflies (for example, they are a treat for squirrels);
• parasitic insects (for example, these are hedgehog flies or tahini, which lay eggs in the body of the silkworm);
• pathogens (eg pebrina).

Sericulture involves human struggle with the deadly enemies of the silkworm.

Ringed silkworm and measures to combat it.

Order Lepidoptera, family. Cocoon weavers

Ringed silkworm (Malocosoma necutria) is a butterfly up to 40 mm in span, the front wings are ocher-yellow with 2 transverse stripes, the hind wings are lighter than the front wings, the antennae are bristly. The eggs overwinter and the caterpillars hatch in the spring. The caterpillars damage the buds, and then the buds, flowers and eat the leaves. They feed in the evening and at night. The development of the caterpillar lasts approximately 1.5 months. During this time, males go through 5 instars, females - 6.

During the years of mass reproduction. Caterpillars denude oak forests, cause loss of acorn harvest, and reduce tree growth. In the second half of summer, the foliage is restored.

Foci of reproduction appeared more often in oak forests of low density in remote and warm areas.

The ringed silkworm is polyphagous and damages: poplar, wild fruit trees, especially apple trees, etc.

Ringed cocoon moth (Malacosoma neustria,

cocoon moth family - Lasiocampidae) - a butterfly with a densely hairy body and relatively wide wings from red-brown to ocher color, their span is 32 - 40 mm. Fore wings with two transverse darker lines or a darker stripe passing onto the hind wings. The antennae are feathery.

Flight of butterflies in July. The female lays eggs in a ring on thin branches and shoots of fruit trees, oak and other species. The ring consists of a tight single-layer spiral of erect, cone-shaped eggs, tightly glued together with dark gray secretions from the sphincter glands. The tops of the eggs are light. The eggs overwinter with the caterpillars formed in them.

The caterpillars are at first dark, then bluish-gray in color with more or less evenly spaced short hairs on the body covers and with longitudinal multi-colored lines - a median white, two orange and black and two wide blue stripes on the sides (Fig. 41, color incl. ). The length of adult caterpillars reaches 4.5 cm.

They hatch from eggs in early spring at the end of April - beginning of May and live in colonies until the fourth instar, first eating away the buds that have not yet opened, then eating the leaves from the edges, leaving the central vein. Caterpillars feed at night; during the day they accumulate in the forks of thick branches, where they make spider nests in which they hide in bad weather.

Caterpillars pupate in June in cracks in the bark and on leaves, and in areas of mass reproduction and on grass. The pupae are black with a bluish coating, up to 2.5 cm long, with a rounded apex of the abdomen. They are found in a two-layer parchment-like loose lemon-white cocoon, where they are located singly. The pupal phase lasts 15 days. The generation is annual.

The ringed cocoon moth belongs to the spring-summer phenological group. This is a polyphagous species that damages oak, fruit trees, especially apple trees and many deciduous trees (poplar, elm, linden, rowan and other rosaceae). Outbreaks of its mass reproduction occur in urban plantings and parks, in forests, most often in oak groves.

The entomophagous complex includes mainly polyphagous species, among them many ovivores. Many of them have several generations per year.

The reason for the extinction of ringed cocoon moth foci is most often bacteriosis in combination with unfavorable weather at the end of the caterpillar development period.

Surveillance of the ringed silkworm is carried out in sparse old oak forests in May-June; when a spider nest is found in the forks of branches with a caterpillar inside, rings of egg clutches from which the caterpillars emerged are additionally identified.

Preparation: Karbofos 50% emulsion concentrate 1.5-1.6 kg/ha

What harm does an insect cause?

It should be remembered that each insect brings a certain benefit to green spaces. The pine cocoon moth, which can be called a forest orderly, is no exception. Its caterpillars primarily eat old needles on diseased and weakened trees.

When the population becomes too numerous, the pine cocoon moth turns into an extremely dangerous pest of pine forests.

The greatest damage to forestry is caused by cocoon moth caterpillars, which eat needles at all stages of their development and especially intensively after wintering, from early spring until

One adult caterpillar eats up to 60 needles per day, and during the entire period of development until pupation - about 1000 needles (approximately 36 g). This intensity of eating needles leads to the fact that damaged trees do not have time to recover and dry out completely.

In dry years, which are the most favorable for the reproduction of the pest, numerous populations of caterpillars can destroy tens of thousands of hectares of pine forests. An outbreak of mass reproduction in the same places can last about 5 years. When outbreaks occur in forestry, intensive control of the pine cocoon moth is carried out.

Gypsy moth

The word “silkworm” immediately brings to mind fabrics. But if you add one more thing to it - “unpaired”, then you get a pest from the volanca family. However, this butterfly was not always considered a pest. And when amateur entomologist Etienne Trouvelot brought gypsy moth cocoons to America in 1860, he only wanted to cross it with the silkworm to create a disease-resistant hybrid. But nothing came of it, and the pest - the gypsy moth - spread throughout the surrounding forests.

This is what a gypsy moth looks like

The gypsy moth often reproduces en masse, and then its caterpillars devour deciduous forests and gardens over vast areas for several years in a row. They love many deciduous trees, especially oak, but avoid pear. But if there are no deciduous trees nearby, then the gluttons also attack coniferous trees. It is difficult to get rid of such a pest; insecticides, cauterization, and the use of “biological weapons” in the form of beetles are used - especially the golden ground beetle and the fragrant beetle, which eat insect pests.

Gypsy moth caterpillars emerge from the egg covered with many long hairs, each of which has a cavity inside. Thanks to this, the caterpillars are easily picked up by the wind, which carries them tens of kilometers away. After the first molt, the caterpillars lose their hairs and then simply crawl in different directions in search of food.

Hairy caterpillar

The gypsy moth butterfly emerges from the pupa in which it has spent 10-15 days. She won't be in this form anymore

Why is the silkworm gypsy?

The gypsy moth got its name because the male and female of this insect are very different from each other - both in shape and color. For example, the wingspan of the female is 9 cm, and that of the male is only 4 cm. The antennae of the female are thin, while the antennae of the male are wide and feathery. The pattern of the wings is also slightly different. Such a difference in the appearance of females and males is called sexual dimorphism and occurs to one degree or another in a huge number of living beings.

Male gypsy moth

Female gypsy moth

What does it eat?

The name of the insect directly answers the question of what it eats. These are mulberry leaves. There are 17 species of this tree, all of which are suitable for feeding the silkworm. Despite the fact that juicy, tasty berries ripen on the trees, the caterpillars are not interested in them. The silkworm does not eat shoots or tree bark; all its attention is focused exclusively on the foliage.

In nature, in rare cases, when there is a lack of food, silkworm larvae can eat the leaves of other plants, but this deteriorates the quality of the silk thread.

Types of caterpillars - photos and names.

Among the great variety of different caterpillars, the following varieties are of greatest interest:

The cabbage caterpillar or cabbage butterfly caterpillar (cabbage white butterfly) (lat. Pieris brassicae) lives throughout Eastern Europe, northern Africa to the Japanese islands, and was also introduced to South America. The caterpillar is 3.5 cm long, has 16 legs and has a light green body covered with black warts and short black hairs. Depending on the weather, the caterpillar stage lasts from 13 to 38 days. These caterpillars feed on cabbage, horseradish, radishes, turnips, turnips and shepherd's purse. They are considered the main pest of cabbage.

The moth (land surveyor) caterpillar (lat. Geometridae) is characterized by a long thin body and undeveloped abdominal legs, due to which it has an original method of movement - it bends in a loop, while pulling the abdominal legs to the pectoral legs. The family includes more than 23 thousand species of moths distributed throughout the world. All types of caterpillars of this family have well-developed muscles, and therefore are able to attach themselves vertically to plants, perfectly imitating broken branches and petioles. The color of the caterpillars is similar to the color of foliage or bark, which additionally serves as an excellent camouflage. They eat tree needles, currants and hazel.

The great harpy caterpillar (lat. Cerura vinula = Dicranura vinula) lives throughout Europe, Central Asia and northern Africa. Adult caterpillars grow up to 6 cm and are distinguished by a green body with a purple diamond on the back, bordered by a white outline. In case of danger, the caterpillar inflates, takes a threatening pose and sprays out a caustic substance. The insect remains in the caterpillar stage from early summer to September, feeding on the leaves of plants from the willow and poplar families, including the common aspen.

The red-tailed caterpillar (lat. Calliteara pudibunda) is found in the forest-steppe zone throughout Eurasia, as well as in Asia Minor and Central Asia. The caterpillar, up to 5 cm long, is pinkish, brown or gray in color. The body is densely covered with individual hairs or tufts of hair, at the end there is a tail of protruding crimson-colored hairs. This is a poisonous caterpillar: upon contact with human skin, it causes a painful allergy. These caterpillars eat the foliage of various trees and shrubs, especially preferring hops.

Silkworm caterpillar (lat. Bombyx mori) or silkworm. Lives in East Asia: in northern China and Russia, in the southern regions of Primorye. The caterpillar is 6-7 cm long, its wavy body is densely covered with blue and brown hairy warts. After 4 molts, completing the 32-day development cycle, the color of the caterpillar becomes yellow. The food of the silkworm caterpillar is exclusively mulberry leaves. This insect has been actively used in sericulture since the 27th century BC. e.

Caterpillar of the corrosive woodworm (lat. Zeuzera pyrina) from the woodworm family. It is found in all European countries except the Far North, as well as in South Africa, Southeast Asia and North America. It overwinters twice, during which time it changes color from yellow-pink to yellow-orange with black, glossy warts. The length of the insect is 5-6 cm. Caterpillars live inside the branches and trunks of various trees, feeding on their juices.

The caterpillar of the lady bear (lat. Callimorpha dominula) or girl bear lives in Eastern and Western Europe and in southeast Asia. It overwinters once and is distinguished by its black and blue color with yellow stripes and spots. Lives on nettles, geraniums, willows, raspberries, strawberries, and feeds on them.

The swallowtail caterpillar (lat. Papilio machaon) lives throughout Europe, Asia, northern Africa and North America. One of the most colorful caterpillars: at first black, with scarlet warts, and as it grows it becomes green with black transverse stripes. Each stripe contains 6-8 red-orange spots. The disturbed caterpillar secretes an odorous orange-yellow liquid. It feeds on carrots, celery, wormwood, parsley, and sometimes alder leaves.

The smallest caterpillar in the world is a member of the moth family. For example, clothes moth caterpillars (lat. Tineola bisselliella), which have just emerged from eggs, reach a length of only 1 mm.

The largest caterpillar in the world is the Atlas peacock caterpillar (lat. Attacus atlas). The bluish-green caterpillar, as if dusted with white dust, grows up to 12 cm in length.

Sericulture

Mulberry worms are most often used in sericulture

Silk production dates back to ancient times and occupied an important place in the economies of eastern countries. Today, the main silk producing countries are India and China.

Mulberry worms are also bred quite widely in European countries, Korea, India and Russia.

Mulberry worms with white cocoons are bred for production purposes. Most often, Japanese, Chinese and European species of silkworms are bred in production. With the development of silkworming, new mixed breeds of silkworms are constantly being developed.

In large industries, the eggs of mulberry worms are grown in special incubators, where they turn into larvae in a couple of days. The larvae are then placed in special feeders with mulberry leaves, where they feed and grow. After the larvae grow, they are transferred to special cells where they will form a cocoon. The larvae begin to produce silk thread when they find the necessary support for fixation. Rotating their heads to the sides, the larvae form a frame, and then crawl inside and complete the formation of the cocoon.

To obtain silk thread in production, they do not wait until the moth is born. After a couple of days, the pupated individuals are collected and treated with steam. When treated with steam, the larvae inside die and the threads are easier to unwind. After steam, the cocoons are immersed in boiling water, which makes the thread more pliable.

In eastern countries, home breeding of silkworms is still widespread. The larvae are manually transferred to trays covered with mulberry leaves, and straw branches or lattice trays are used to form a cocoon.

The photo shows the stage of collecting silkworm cocoons.

It takes about two thousand pupated caterpillars to produce one silk item, such as a dress. Silk products are very expensive, which is due to the labor-intensive process of obtaining silk threads. With the development of technology, synthetic threads are replacing silk. But reviews about the characteristics of natural silk do not require additional comments. Natural fabric has a special richness and charm, and products made from silk thread are still considered an indicator of status and good taste.

Diet

The Mulberry Moth's diet mainly consists of the leaves of the mulberry tree. The larvae that the female hatches have an insatiable appetite, so they eat a lot and grow in size too quickly. Silkworms can also feed on figs, ficus leaves, milkweed and many other plantings. Those butterflies that are in captivity can also eat lettuce, which has a very bad effect on their health and overall life cycle, and, accordingly, on their offspring. Today, experts are developing a special universal food that will be suitable for all types of silkworms, both in the wild and in captivity.

Human use[edit | edit code]

Sericulture

Main articles: Silk-secreting glands

,Sericulture

,
Silk
and
Lei Zu
Silkworm caterpillars at a Chinese silkworm factory Silkworm cocoons

Sericulture is a branch of agriculture whose purpose is to produce raw materials for the production of natural silk. It is a special breeding of caterpillars of certain species to obtain silk. The textile industry prefers the silkworm, which is domesticated by humans. According to Confucian texts, silk production using the silkworm began around the 27th century BC. e., although archaeological research allows us to talk about the Yangshao period (5000 BC). In the first half of the 1st century AD. e. Sericulture came to ancient Khotan and came to India at the end of the 3rd century. In Europe, including the Mediterranean, sericulture arose in the 8th century, and more than three hundred years ago it appeared in Russia. Subsequently, the republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia became the main centers of sericulture. The silkworm plays an important economic role in silk production. As a result of selection, many breeds of silkworms have been developed, differing in productivity, quality of silk thread and color of cocoons. Silk is formed by proteins - fibroin (75%) and sericin, which form the surface layer of silk fiber. Fibroin is secreted by the posterior part, and sericin by the middle part of the gland. These proteins differ greatly from each other in their amino acid composition. Sericin differs from fibroin in the lower content of glycocol, alanine and tyrosine and a significantly higher content of serine and diamino acids. The silk fiber is covered on top with a waxy pellicle, which is similar in chemical composition to cuticulin (a protein that is the main component of the outer layer of the cuticle - the epicuticle). To obtain silk thread, the pupae are first killed using hot steam and water on the tenth day after pupation. A silk cocoon usually contains up to 3,500 meters of fiber, but it can be unwound by barely a third. To get 1 kilogram of raw silk, you need cocoons of about a thousand caterpillars, which eat 60 kilograms of mulberry leaves in a month and a half. From 100 kg of cocoons you can get approximately 9 kg of silk thread. Currently, 45 thousand tons of silk are produced annually throughout the world. The main suppliers are China, India, Japan, Korea and Uzbekistan.

Other uses

See also: Entomophagy

In China, silkworm caterpillars are salted, added to chicken egg omelettes, or simply fried with onions and thick sauces. In Asia, silkworm pupae, after unwinding the silk from the cocoon, are not thrown away, but are consumed fried or candied. In 1987, in Thailand, the Ministry of Health included silkworm pupae in the list of products that can supplement the developed diet for preschool children - the pupae were recommended to be fried and lightly crushed for subsequent use in curries and first courses. In Vietnam, they cook a local version of cabbage soup with them. South Korea supplies canned silkworm pupae to Asian stores around the world. More than 20 thousand tons of these insects are consumed annually in India.

What good intentions lead to

Few people know that the gypsy moth, which is a major pest of the US forestry industry, was spread as a result of a failed experiment. As they say, I wanted the best, but what happened was the following.

Silkworm (lat. Bombyx mori

) is a nondescript little butterfly with dirty white wings that cannot fly at all. But it is thanks to her efforts that fashionistas around the world have been able to enjoy outfits made from beautiful soft fabric, the shine and colorful shimmer of which fascinates at first sight, for more than 5,000 years.

Silk has always been a valuable commodity. The ancient Chinese, the first producers of silk fabric, kept their secret securely. For its disclosure there was an immediate and terrible death penalty. They domesticated silkworms back in the 3rd millennium BC, and to this day these small insects work to satisfy the whims of modern fashion.

There are monovoltine, bivoltine and multivoltine breeds of silkworm in the world. The first give only one generation per year, the second - two, and the third - several generations per year. An adult butterfly has a wingspan of 40-60 mm, it has an underdeveloped mouthparts, so it does not feed throughout its short life. The wings of the silkworm are dirty white, with brownish bands clearly visible on them.

Immediately after mating, the female lays eggs, the number of which varies from 500 to 700 pieces. The clutch of the silkworm (like all other representatives of the peacock-eye family) is called grena. It has an elliptical shape, flattened on the sides, with one side slightly larger than the other. On the thin pole there is a depression with a tubercle and a hole in the center, which is necessary for the passage of the seed thread. The size of the grenades depends on the breed - in general, Chinese and Japanese silkworms have smaller grenades than European and Persian ones.

Silkworms (caterpillars) emerge from the eggs, and all the attention of silk producers is focused on them. They grow in size very quickly, molting four times during their lifetime. The entire cycle of growth and development lasts from 26 to 32 days, depending on the conditions of detention: temperature, humidity, food quality, etc.

Silkworms feed on the leaves of the mulberry tree (mulberry), so silk production is possible only in places where it grows. When the time comes for pupation, the caterpillar weaves itself into a cocoon consisting of a continuous silk thread ranging from three hundred to one and a half thousand meters long. Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar transforms into a pupa. In this case, the color of the cocoon can be very different: yellowish, greenish, pinkish or some other. True, only silkworms with white cocoons are bred for industrial needs.

Ideally, the butterfly should emerge from the cocoon on days 15-18, however, unfortunately, it is not destined to survive until this time: the cocoon is placed in a special oven and kept for about two to two and a half hours at a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. Of course, the pupa dies, and the process of unwinding the cocoon is greatly simplified. In China and Korea, fried dolls are eaten; in all other countries they are considered just “production waste.”

Sericulture has long been an important industry in China, Korea, Russia, France, Japan, Brazil, India and Italy. Moreover, about 60% of all silk production occurs in India and China

Niramin – Feb 23rd, 2017

The silkworm lives almost nowhere in the wild. The ancient Chinese domesticated this beneficial insect 4.5 thousand years ago. Despite the fact that the Chinese kept the process of producing natural silk a closely guarded secret for a long time, it became known in other countries where there are optimal conditions for raising silkworm larvae.

An ancient legend says that a Chinese princess, having married an Indian rajah, secretly took with her a clutch of silkworm eggs when she left China. It is worth noting that such an act was considered a state crime, and the princess faced the death penalty in her homeland. Nowadays, silkworm breeding is carried out on special farms in Asian countries: China, Japan, India, Pakistan, North and South Korea, Uzbekistan and Turkey. In addition, similar farms exist in Italy and France.

Like most insects, the silkworm looks different during its life, as it goes through several stages of development:

Notes

1. Striganova B. R., Zakharov A. A.
   Five-language dictionary of animal names: Insects (Latin-Russian-English-German-French) / . - M.: RUSSO, 2000. - P. 231. - 1060 copies. — ISBN 5-88721-162-8.
2. Gornostaev G. N. Insects of the USSR. - Moscow: Mysl, 1970. - 372 p. — (Reference books for geographers and travelers).
3. Tikhonov A.
   Red Book of Russia. Animals and plants. - ROSMEN, 2002. - P. 414. - 10,000 copies. — ISBN 5-353-00500-7
4. Chauvin R.
   Physiology of insects. - M.: Foreign Literature Publishing House, 1953. - P. 149-152. — 494 p.
5. ↑, p. 177.
6. (unavailable link). Brasstacksmadras.com. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
7. Alain Ed, Michel Viard.
   Butterflies of the world. - 2nd, stereotypical. - Interbook-business, 2001. - 193 p. — ISBN 5-89164-090-2.
8. ↑ Jerry Hopkins.
   Extreme cuisine. The weird and wonderful foods people eat. - M.: FAIR PRESS, 2006. - P. 224-227. — 336 p. — ISBN 5-8183-1032-9.