Detailed picture guide to the silkworm's growth process, with the changes at each stage clear at a glance

The silkworm, also called the mulberry silkworm or domesticated silkworm, is a holometabolous insect that feeds on mulberry leaves. In its lifetime it goes through four developmental stages that differ completely in form and physiological function: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Let us now take a look together at this detailed picture guide to the silkworm's growth process!

Silkworms reproduce by eggs. A silkworm egg looks very much like a tiny grain of sesame, about 1 mm wide and about 0.5 mm thick. When the temperature rises, the egg begins to develop. After 7-15 days, when the egg becomes transparent and the outline inside can be seen, it means the silkworm is about to come out! (Photo: silkworm eggs)

The silkworm just hatched from the egg is black, like an ant, and we call it an "ant silkworm". Its body is covered in fine hairs, which become inconspicuous after about a few days. About 40 minutes after hatching, the ant silkworm has an appetite, and that is when the feeding process begins. (Photo: silkworm hatching)

Silkworms live on mulberry leaves. After continuously eating mulberry leaves, their bodies turn white, and after a period of time they begin to shed their skin. When a silkworm sleeps, it does not eat or move; on the surface it is sleeping, but in reality it is shedding the old skin and putting on new skin to continue growing. Throughout the entire rearing process, the silkworm molts 4 times. Each time it molts, it does not eat or move, so try not to disturb it, and do not think it is sick and throw it away. Each sleeping period of the silkworm lasts about one day. (Photo: the silkworm has grown up)

After one molt, it is a second-instar larva. Each molt counts as one year of age, and it molts four times in total, becoming a fifth-instar larva before it starts spinning silk and forming a cocoon. (Photo: silkworm spinning silk)

It generally begins to form a cocoon after about 25 days. When the silkworm's back is shiny and it turns yellow and translucent, it means it is about to spin silk and form a cocoon. At this time, a cross-shaped space should be provided so that the silkworm can form its cocoon. It takes two days to form a complete cocoon, and inside the cocoon it completes its final molt and becomes a pupa. (Photo: silkworm forming a cocoon)

After about ten days, it emerges as a silkmoth and breaks out of the cocoon. After coming out of the cocoon, the female moth releases a scent from the tip of her abdomen to attract the male to mate. After mating, the male dies, and the female moth takes about one night to lay about 500 eggs, and then she too slowly dies. (Photo: silkworm breaking out of the cocoon)