Live Invertebrates >> Arthropods-Insects >> Silkworms

Silkworms have a strong appetite, as do all lepidopteran larvae. They eat mulberry leaves day and night. Thus, they grow very fast. When the color of their heads turns darker, it means that it is time for them to moult. After they moult about four times, their bodies turn slightly yellow and their skin becomes tighter, which means they are going to enter an apparently resting state (the pupa or chrysalis), during which they transform themselves into moths. Before becoming a pupa, the silkworm encloses itself in a cocoon, for protection during the vulnerable, almost motionless pupal state. The silkworm is so called because it spins its cocoon from raw silk produced in its salivary glands.

Silkworm Larvae are no longer available.