All About SilkwormsMini Books

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Created and designed by Debbie Martin                      

                                                                                                                                                    

All About Silkworms Mini BooksThe Whole Word Publishing

         “The Word, the whole Word and nothing but the Word."Copyright © June 2010

by Debbie Martin 3627 D St.

Bremerton, Wa 98312All rights reserved.

Permission is hereby granted to the individual purchaser to reproduce        his book in whole or in part for non commercial individual or 

  classroom use only. Permission is not granted for school wide system  wide reproduction of materials.

                                                                                                   Clipart public domain.   

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What s a silkworm?The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of the silk moth, Latin Bombyx mori. Bombyx mori means "silkworm of the mulberry

tree". It is the producer of silk. A silkworm's eats leaves from the white mulberry tree (Morus alba). The silkworm caterpillars

spin a silk cocoon and change into moths while inside. After hatching from an egg, the worms take one month to grow large enough to spin the silk. They spend three weeks in the cocoon, then emerge as a moth to mate and lay eggs. The eggs hatch

into worms in a few weeks, and then the cycle continues. Silkworms go through four stages of development, as do most insects: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The adult (imago)

stage is the silkworm moth. The larva is the silkworm caterpillar. Since the silkworm grows so much, it must shed its skin four times while it is growing. These stages-within-

a-stage are called instars.

Silkworms

What is the Latin name for the silkworm and what does it mean?

What do silkworms eat?

Directions:Cut out, fold in half. Answer

questions,write answer inside. Glue into lapbook.

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What are the four stages of development a silkworm goes through?

Directions: For the above booklet. Cut out. Cut on red lines stop at black dotted line. Next, fold flaps overon dotted black line so flaps cover the four center squares. Next, on each square write the four stages

of development of the silkworm. (One stage on each square.) Next cut out squares above and glue the on the outside of the flap over the correct stage of development. For example glue the picture of silkworm eggs

on the outside of the flap that has egg written inside and so on. Glue into lapbook.

What is the adult moth stage called?

What are the four stages of the silkworm

caterpillar called?

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half and write inside. Glue into lapbook.

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Directions: Cut out life cycle of a silkworm on previous page. Fold in thirds like this:Next Cut out pocket below. Fold in half. Lightly glue sides but not the top to make a

pocket for your life cycle chart. Put folded life cycle chart into the pocket.Writ e ”Life Cycle of a Silkworm” on the front of the pocket. Glue into lapbook.

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Parts of a Silkworm

These dark holes are breathing holes called spiracles. There are 18 spiraclesHead

CaudalHorn

AbdomenThorax

Abdominal Legs(4 pair)Thoracic Legs

CrescentCaudal leg

(1 pair)

Eye Spots

Hairs(for gripping)

Directions: Using the labeled diagram as a guide. Label the parts of the silkworm on the unlabeled diagram. Next, cut out and fold in half. Cut out above label: “Parts of a Silkworm”

at top to page onto front of booklet. Glue into lapbook.

Did you know?The body of the silkworm is

made up of thirteen segments.

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The silkworm (Bombyx mori) was native throughout Asia, and domesticated in China over 5,000 years ago to make silk. Legend has it that around 2700 B.C., empress Xi Ling-Shi observed

caterpillars eating the local mulberry trees, when one of the cocoons fell into her hot tea.

The cocoon unraveled in the boiling water, turning into a long strand of silk. While there is

no way of knowing whether this legend is historically accurate, archaeological excavations

have found 5,000-year-old silk products in China, revealing that the domestication of the

silkworm had already taken place. It would have been hard to predict that these little caterpillars would create a thriving economic export; silk production is now a multi-billion

dollar industry, with around 150,000 tons of silk created every year.

More about Silkworms

What is the legend of the discovery of silk?

How many tons of silk is created every year?

Directions:Cut out booklets.

Fold in half, write inside.Glue into lapbook

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Silkworms today are biological silk-producing machines that are the product of thousands of years of careful breeding. Because they have such short life spans, one silkworm moth can produce hundreds of caterpillars. Silkworms were quickly and easily bred for certain

desirable traits over many generations. At around 77 degrees Fahrenheit, a fertile silkworm egg will hatch after only seven to ten days. The newborn is very tiny (around 1/8th of an inch long) and covered with black

hairs, but as the caterpillar matures it becomes white, hairless, and quite soft. After three to four weeks of constant eating and growing, a silkworm can reach a

plump three inches in length, increasing its mass an amazing 10,000 times since hatching.

Describe how big is a newborn silkworm is and how large it grows.

At what temperature ad how many days does it take a silkworm to hatch?

Directions:Cut out booklets,

Fold in half. Write inside booklets, glue

into lapbook.

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When the silkworm starts to spin a yellow or white cocoon, which takes around four days to complete. The reason some cocoons are yellow and some are white is because of genetics. Just like people, some people have blue eyes and others have brown eyes.

Almost all commercial varieties of silkworms make white silk. There are also silkworm varieties that make yellow, orange and pale-green silk. When you cross-breed a "white-

silk" silkworm moth with a "yellow-silk" silkworm moth, you get some yellow offspring and some white offspring. When you have a mom with blue eyes and a dad with brown eyes, some of their kids will have brown eyes and others will be blue-eyed. Same idea. With

people, brown eyes are dominant. With silkworms, the colored silk is dominant over white. Wild silkworms all make yellow silk, to blend in with dead leaves. Over the centuries, silkworm farmers selectively bred for whiter and whiter silk until they

achieved the pure white we see today. They like the pure white because it can be dyed any color without having to bleach it first. Nowadays, with natural and organic products gaining in popularity, people are selectively breeding for colored silks. You can propagate

eggs for white, yellow, orange and green silk. Cotton farmers have recently begun to breed for colored cottons and have a wide variety of naturally-colored cottons, including

yellow, pink, pale-green and orange.

Why are some silkworm cocoons white and some yellow?

Why is white silk preferred to yellow silk?

Directions:Cut out booklets,

Fold in half. Write inside booklets, glue

into lapbook.

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The silkworm moth has been bred to have a large body and small wings, with a wingspan of one-and-a-half to two inches, the female's wings are even smaller. Because of this

the domesticated silkworm moth cannot fly. The female is larger than the male and has a large abdomen for carrying many eggs. After the female moth mates and lays about 300

eggs, it dies, but the cycle starts anew with the eggs.

Female Male

Tiny wings

Describe the differences between the male and female silkworm moth.

How many eggs does the female silkworm moth layand what happens after she lays them?

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook.

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Just as monarch caterpillars depend upon milkweed, silkworms eat mulberry tree leaves specifically the white mulberry

(Morus alba). The white mulberry is a large, deciduous tree, that has deep purple fruit. (Deciduous means that the tree

loses it's leaves in the fall.) Other varieties of the mulberry can have black, red, or white edible berries, or it can be

fruitless. Cultivation of white mulberry for silkworms began over four thousand years ago in China. The white mulberry is

now widely planted. It has been grown widely from India, west through Afghanistan and Iran to southern Europe for over a thousand years for leaves to feed silkworms. Silkworms are attracted to mulberries by a chemical fragrance the leaves

release specifically called cis-jasmone. The silkworms’ relationship with the mulberry tree is so close that the

domestic silk worm is named after the mulberry tree.

The White Mulberry Tree

How long ago did China start cultivating the white mulberry? Where has it been grown?

What is the special chemical that themulberry tree gives off?

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook.

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Silkworm caterpillars take about a month to get big enough to spin a cocoon. The

cocoon-spinning process takes about three days. When the silkworm ate great

quantities of mulberry leaves, they were digested and nutrients were sent into the

bloodstream. The silk glands absorbed these nutrients. The silk is actually

hardened silkworm saliva. The larva has a small spinneret on its lip of its mouth (not out of the rear end like a spider) , through which the silk emerges. To create the silk,

silkworms secrete a fluid, from its salivary glands, that is pushed through special openings, called spinnerets, on their mouth parts. The fluid hardens and turns into a

thread of silk, which the silkworm uses to make the cocoon around its body. The silkworm moves its head in figure 8 patterns as it spins the cocoon. The entire cocoon is

made by a single thread, which can be around 3,000 feet long!

Spinneret

Directions: For booklet. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook.

Explain how the silkworm makes silk.Sam

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Silkworm farmers boil the cocoon (with the caterpillar inside) to loosen the silk and harvest the long, single silk thread by unwinding it. The thread is very thin and it

actually takes around 2,000 to 3,000 cocoons to make just one pound of silk. If the moths were allowed to emerge from the cocoons, they would make holes in the silk

thread that destroys the long, single thread of silk, creating many shorter fragments of lesser quality. The silkworm farmers kill the pupa's inside the cocoons by baking them in a hot oven. Then they soak the cocoons in boiling water to loosen the threads. A person

finds the end of the thread and places it on a winding bobbin. Then a machine unrolls the cocoon, winding the silk from five cocoons together to make one silk thread. Then the

thread is woven into cloth.

Explain how silkworm farmers harvest silk.

What would happen if the moths were allowedto emerge from their cocoons?

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook.

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Inside the cocoon, the silkworm sheds its skin and turns into a brown-shelled pupa. Inside this shell, the pupa turns into a moth. This process takes three weeks, and then the moth emerges from the cocoon. They

usually emerge at dawn. The adult moth has a special spit which is used to dissolve the silk so it can push its way out of the cocoon. Silkworm farmers kill the moths before they emerge and make holes in the silk thread. When they emerge, the wings are crumpled, but they get pumped full of fluid and

harden it about an hour.

male female

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook.

Explain how a silkworm moth emerges from it's cocoon.

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook. Cut out and color moths and glue into lapbook.

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When first laid, all eggs are lemon-yellow. After three days, they will turn white if they are infertile, or turn black if they are fertile. Once you can see a dark ring and clear center in the egg, it is almost ready to hatch. They usually hatch at dawn. If you examined the eggshell under a microscope, you would see

the pores that let air inside while the caterpillar is developing. The edges of the

hole where the caterpillar emerged are black. One hatched newborn silkworms look like

small black strings this size __ .The Japanese call this stage "Kego", which means "hairy baby".

What do silkworm moth eggs look like?

What does Kego mean?

Directions: For booklets. Cut out, fold in half, write inside, glue into lapbook.

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The silkworms will shed their skin three times while growing. The shed skins are beige and usually roll up into a round wad. Sometimes the tiny silkworms will eat their shed

skin. The larger ones don't. Each stage the silkworm goes through is called an "instar". First instar caterpillars are black. The second instar has a larger face plate and gray

coloring. His tiny face will be replaced by a much larger one, and third instars are grayish-white with black heads. The fourth instar they are all white and about an inch long. They eat much more .The fifth and final instar is about three inches long and all white. In between each instar is a time of resting and molting. The Japanese say the

silkworm is "sleeping". The silkworm does 80% of its eating during the fifth instar. The silk glands now make up 25% of its body weight. The larva has increased its size 10,000 times since birth. If this happened to a six-pound human baby, it would weigh 60,000

pounds when it was grown!

What does the first instar look like?

What does the second instar look like?

What does the third instar look like?

What does the four instar look like?

What does the five instar look like?

What do the Japanese call the resting and molting period?

For instar booklets. Cut out, fold in half write inside, glue into lapbook.

Directions: For above booklet.Cut out, fold in half. Fold on dotted line so flap will cover front of book.

Write answer inside.Glue into lapbook.

How many times has the larva

increased in size?

Cut out, fold in half write inside, glue into lapbook.

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Below is how you tell the difference between male and female silkworms. Female silkworm larvae, pupae and moths are larger than the male. A pair of round milky spots are located on each abdominal side, 11th and 12th segment in females. There is a milky

spot on the border of the 11th and 12 segment in males.

What s the 'Difference?

Female Male

Herold's glandIshiwataImaginal

buds

Directions: Using the labeled drawing as a guide, label the parts of the silkwormin the above picture. Cut out, fold in half on the front of the booklet write, “Male and Female

Silkworm Larvae.” Glue into lapbook.

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Parts of a silkworm pupa. (The pupa is inside of the cocoon.)

Compound eye

Antenna

Wing

Female Male

Directions: Using the labeled drawing as a guide, label the parts of the silkworm pupain the above picture. Color the pupa brown if desired. Cut out, fold in half on the front of the booklet write,

“Parts of a Silkworm Pupa.” Glue into lapbook.

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What is sericulture?Sericulture or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk.

For thousands of years, the secrets of silkworm rearing (called “sericulture”) were closely guarded in China. The penalty for releasing any information to the outside world—from what created the silk, to how to culture the silkworms, and how to process the raw silk—was death. However, eventually silkworm domestication spread from China;

Chinese immigrants took the silkworms and their secrets with them in the 200s B.C. to Korea. From Korea, the knowledge of silk production made its way to Japan around 200

A.D.

Sericulture

What is sericulture?

What was the penalty for sharing the secret of silk?

For above booklets. Cut out, fold in half write inside, glue into lapbook.

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Around 550 A.D., silkworms arrived in the Byzantine Empire and were presented to Emperor Justinian. Although China had been trading silk since 200 B.C. along the Silk

Road, (the Silk Road was a trading route) no secrets had left Asia until then. While it’s unclear whether the silkworms were smuggled by monks or merchants, either way, the silk industry began to get a foothold outside of Asia. In Byzantium, the silk industry

developed slowly under tight government regulation. It was not until between the 700s and 1000s A.D. that silkworms and culturing information made their way to Europe

through Spain, Italy, and France. Silk culturing became so ingrained with European life that silkworms arrived in North America in the 1600s with colonists.

Because silkworms were domesticated and easy to manage early on in scientific history, early scientific discoveries were made using these critters. In 1835, Italian

entomologist Agostino Bassi identified a microorganism (the soil-dwelling fungus Beauveria bassiana) as causing a fatal disease in silkworms. Microorganisms had not been

previously identified as being responsible for diseases.

When did silkworms make their way to Europe?

What important discovery didAgostino Bassi make?

For above booklets. Cut out, fold in half write inside, glue into lapbook.

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Around 1870, French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur discovered that disease in silkworms could also be caused by other microscopic organisms: bacteria. Again, bacteria were not previously suspected to cause health problems until spotted in the caterpillars.

Different types of silk.

There are four major types of silk of commercial importance, obtained from different species of

silkworms which in turn feed on a number of food plants. These are: Mulberry,Tasar, Muga, and Eri.

Except mulberry, other varieties of silks are generally termed as non-mulberry silks. India produces all these

commercial varieties of silk.

What important discovery didLouis Pasteur make?

What are the four types of silk?

For above booklet. Cut out, fold in half write inside, glue into lapbook.

For below booklet. Cut out write what the four types of silk areone on each square (including on back of picture of silk) fold on dotted lines to make a

accordion. Glue in lapbook.

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Mulberry: Most of the commercial silk produced in the world comes from this variety and often silk generally refers to mulberry silk. Mulberry

silk comes from the silkworm, Bombyx mori L. which solely feeds on the leaves of mulberry plant. These silkworms are completely

domesticated and reared indoors.

Tasar:Tasar (Tussah) is copperish color, coarse silk mainly used for

furnishings and interiors. It is less lustrous than mulberry silk, but has its own feel and appeal. Tasar silk is generated by the silkworm, Antheraea mylitta which mainly thrive on the food plants Asan and

Arjun. The rearings are conducted in nature on the trees in the open.

What is mulberry silk?

What is Tasar (Tussah) silk?

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Oak Tasar: It is a finer variety of tasar generated by the silkworm, Antheraea proyeli J. in India which feed on natural food plants of oak, found in abundance in the

sub-Himalayan belt. China is the major producer of oak tasar in the world and this comes from another

silkworm which is known as Antheraea pernyi.

Eri:Also known as Endi or Errandi, Eri is a multivoltine silk spun from open-ended cocoons, unlike other varieties of silk. Eri silk is the

product of the domesticated silkworm, Philosamia ricini that feeds mainly on castor leaves.

What is Oak Tasar silk?

What is Eri silk?

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Muga: This golden yellow color silk is prerogative

of India and the pride of Assam state. It is obtained from semi-domesticated

multivoltine silkworm, Antheraea assamensis. These silkworms feed on the aromatic leaves of Som and Soalu plants

and are reared on trees similar to that of tasar.

Female Male

What is Muga silk?

For above booklet. Cut out fold in half and write inside. For above color the piece of silk fabric. Cut out and glue into lapbook.

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A, caterpillar; B, pupa; C, imago; the cocoon is cut

open to show the pupa lying within.

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