All About Silkworms Mini Books - CurrClick

All About
Silkworms
Mini Books
Sample file

Sample file Created and designed by Debbie Martin
                      

                                                                 
                                                                                   

All About Silkworms Mini Books
The Whole Word Publishing

         “The Word, the whole Word and nothing but the Word."
Copyright © June 2010
by Debbie Martin 
3627 D St.
Bremerton, Wa 98312
All 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.   

Silkworms

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.
Sample file
Directions:
Cut out, fold in What is the Latin name for the
silkworm and what does it mean?
half. Answer
questions,

write answer
inside. Glue
into lapbook.

What do silkworms eat?

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

Sample file

Directions: For the above booklet. Cut out. Cut on red lines stop at black dotted line. Next, fold flaps over
on 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 are the four stages What is the adult
of the silkworm moth stage called?

caterpillar called?

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

Sample file

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.

Sample file

Parts of a
Silkworm

Thorax Abdomen Caudal
Eye Spots Horn

Crescent Hairs Caudal leg
(for gripping) (1 pair)

These dark holes are breathing holes called Abdominal Legs
spiracles. There are 18 spiracles (4 pair)
Head Thoracic Legs Sample file

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.

More about
Silkworms

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.
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Directions: What is the legend of the discovery of silk?
Cut out booklets.
Fold in half, write inside. How many tons of silk
Glue into lapbook is created every year?

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.
Sample file
Directions:
Cut out booklets, At what temperature ad how many
Fold in half. Write days does it take a silkworm to hatch?
inside booklets, glue

into lapbook.

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

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.
Sample file

Directions: Why are some silkworm cocoons
Cut out booklets, white and some yellow?
Fold in half. Write
inside booklets, glue Why is white silk
preferred to yellow silk?
into lapbook.

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.
Sample file

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

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

Sample fileThe White
Mulberry Tree

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.

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

What is the special chemical that the
mulberry tree gives off?

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

Sample file 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

Spinneret 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!

Explain how the silkworm makes silk.

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

Sample fileSilkworm 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 allowed
to emerge from their cocoons?

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

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

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.

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

male female

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

Sample file 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.

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!

Sample file What does the first
instar look like?

What do the Japanese call What does the second
the resting and molting period? instar look like?

Directions: For above booklet. What does the third
Cut out, fold in half. Fold on dotted instar look like?
line so flap will cover front of book.
What does the four
Write answer inside. instar look like?
Glue into lapbook.

How many times What does the five
has the larva instar look like?
increased
in size? For instar booklets. Cut out, fold in half write inside, glue into lapbook.

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

What's the
Difference?

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.

Ishiwata Sample file Herold's gland
Imaginal Male

buds

Female

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

Silkworm Larvae.” Glue into lapbook.

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

Compound
eye

Antenna
Wing

Sample fileFemaleMale

Directions: Using the labeled drawing as a guide, label the parts of the silkworm pupa
in 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.

Sample fileSericulture

What is sericulture?

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

What is sericulture?

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.

What was the penalty for sharing the
secret of silk?

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

Sample fileAround 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.

When did silkworms make their way to Europe?

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.

What important discovery did
Agostino Bassi make?

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

Sample fileAround 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.

What important discovery did
Louis Pasteur make?

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

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 are the four
types of silk?

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

accordion. Glue in lapbook.

Sample file 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.

What is mulberry silk?

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 Tasar (Tussah) silk?

Sample file 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.

What is Oak Tasar silk?

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 Eri silk?

Female Male 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.

What is Muga silk?

Sample file

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.

A, caterpillar; B, pupa;
C, imago; the cocoon is cut
open to show the pupa lying within.

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