Life cycle of Silkworm:
The
Life Cycle of Silkworm begins when the female silk moth lays eggs. As soon
as the eggs hatched, the larvae or the caterpillar comes into picture. The
silkworms feed on the mulberry leaves which then rise to pupa. In pupa stage, a
weave is netted around by the silkworm to hold itself. Many caterpillars form a
protective layer around the pupa and this covering is termed as cocoon. And the
silk yarn is obtained from the silk moth’s cocoon. In this article, the life
cycle is explained in detail, to understand the process it can be broken down
into following stages:
STAGE
1: EGG
The
life cycle of silk worm begins when the female moth lays eggs; it is the very
first stage of the process.
A
female moth lays approximately 350 eggs at a time. During the time of spring
time the eggs are hatched due to the presence of warmth in the air. This
process happens once a year.
STAGE
2: Silkworm
When
the egg cracks, a hairy silkworm arises. In this stage the growth of silkworm
takes place.
The
silkworms feed on the mulberry leaves and they consume very large amount of
leaves for about a month before they form into a cocoon.
STAGE
3: Cocoon
The
caterpillar spins a protective layer around it which s termed as ‘Cocoon’.
The
cocoon formed is similar in size of a cotton ball and is made of single thread
of silk.
STAGE
4: Pupa
This
stage is called as the motionless stage as there is no motion of the silkworms.
During
this stage, the pupa is killed by adding the pupa in the boiling water and then
the unwinding of silk thread takes place.
STAGE
5: Adult moth
This
is the final stage and in this stage the pupa changes into an adult moth.
Then
the female moth lays eggs after mating and thus the cycle of the silkworm begins
again.
Extraction
of Silk:
Extracting
of silk from the cocoon is called a processing of silk. The silk is separated
from the cocoon by the means of exposing it to the sunlight.
As
soon as the silk is extracted, it is reeled, which is the process of unwinding
of silk from the cocoon.
After
the Reeling process,the silk thread is then bleached and finally silk fiber is
Spun
into silk thread. The following flowchart describes the processing of silk.
 |
| Fig- Processing Flow |
The
chief Silk producing countries are China, India, Thailand, Korea, Brazil,
France, Italy and Japan. About 1 million workers are employed in the Silk
sector in China. In India, about 7.9 billion are employed in the Silk sector. Chine
is the largest producer of Silk in the World and India stands second in the
race producing up to 2000 metric tons in a year.
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