Diapausing eggs under natural conditions remain dormant for months till next spring. The hatching time of silk moth eggs varies with voltinism and environmental conditions. Each egg has an opening, called micropyle at the anterior end. The centrolecithal eggs remain covered by chorion having two layers, outer exochorion and inner endochorion. The eggs are ovoid, spherical or ellipsoid in shape and are flat on one side (dimple) through what eggs remain attached to the substratum. In non-diapausing races, the colour of eggs does not change till the development is complete. In diapausing eggs, the colour changes from light yellow to deep brown when they enter diapause. The clustered eggs always remain covered with gelatinous secretion of the female moth. mori can lay two types of eggs-diapausing or hibernating and non-diapausing or non-hibernating eggs. Most females lay 150-300 eggs over the course of 1-2 days, some can lay as many as 1000 also.Īccording to the race, B. Thus they remain over for 12-24 hours when the females get inseminated by the male.Īfter mating for 12-24 hours, the pair gets separated and the female starts laying eggs while the male moths die. The males being attracted by the pheromone find the female and start mating (Fig. It can secrete pheromone.įollowing emergence from the cocoon, the females rest on the cocoon, spreading out her feeble wings and immediately begin to scent by exuding pheromone from her abdominal projection. The female has larger and fatter abdomen than that of the male which has seven segments.Ī knob like projection covered with sensory hairs at the caudal end of female is present. The male moth has eight abdominal segments with a pair of hooks ‘harps’ at the caudal end which help in copulation. The meso- and metathorax bear two pairs of wings, the larger, triangular forewings remain attached to mesothorax while smaller hind-wings are attached to the metathorax. Thorax has 3 segments – prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax of which mesothorax is the largest.Įach thoracic segment bears a pair of 5-jointed legs. Mouthparts are located between the compound eyes, which include inactive coiled proboscis. Below the base of antennae, two compound eyes are present on either side of the head. The cocoon stage includes a cutaway view of a developing silkworm larva, along with both adult male and female silkworm moths.The small head bears mouth at ventral side and two prominent bipectinate and serrate antennae on two sides. This series of specimens mounted in crystal-clear lucite depicts the life cycle of the silkworm moth in 6 stages, from Larva to adult. The Silkworm is now approaching the end of its life – the adult moth cannot fly and it does not eat or drink. After it is done molting, the Silkworm spins an oval, white or yellow cocoon and emerges weeks later a full grown Silkmoth. It loses its hairy exterior with the first molt, and for the rest of its life as a larva its skin is soft and smooth. It then goes through five stages of growth, molting at each stage. The larva eats mulberry leaves ravenously for the next few weeks, growing to about 2 inches long. The eggs lie dormant through the winter months, hatching in the spring as hairy, 3mm long larvae. The female Silkworm lays her tiny black eggs in the summer or early fall. While the larva of most Moths and Butterflies produce silk, the Silkworm Moth has been domesticated for so long that it can no longer survive in the wild. Silk as a commercial industry began in northern China over 4,000 years ago. Life Cycle of Silkworm Moth - Bombyx mori The Science:
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