#bombycidae

[lupineshieldmaiden]

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[have-you-seen-this-animal]

silk moth :)

Sure :)

Have you seen the domestic silk moth (Bombyx mori)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onSep 25, 2024

[moths-daily]

Moth Of The Day #94

Domestic Silk Moth

Bombyx mori

From the bombycidae family. They have a wingspan of 30-50 mm. They tend to live in man made habitats where mulberry trees can be found. They can be found from northern India to northern China, Korea, Japan, and the far eastern regions of Russia.

[lucidmercury]

Good morning from my silk moth tub! Every day I get three or so new moths eclosing, and today I got a very slight aberrant! I do not kill my moths to keep their wings nice for pinning, I wait for their natural life to end. most of them end up with damage on their wings, but a good few stay nice enough to pin. I hope the aberrant is one such moth! Further rambling about silkmoth colors and speciation under the cut.

B. mori (domestic silkmoths) have been pretty rigorously bred from the wild silkmoth (B. mandarina) over the last five thousand years (at least!) with the goal of high silk production, tame behavior, and egg production. It's likely that these moths began to turn lighter on their own at the start of their domestication due to low predation, but at some point a bright white larva and subsequent moth became the gold standard of a quality animal. Some strains of mori are expected to have tan or lightly marked wings, but the "white seductress" strain that I am rearing, which happens to be the standard, should be pure white. Hybrids between the two species are poorly documented, but mainly because there is little economic interest in crossbreeding. The hybrids that we do have show nearly the exact same expression of mandarina genes that are seen on this moth, and most other aberrant mori specimens. The markings that are indicative of wild genes are actually far less visible on the true wild moth than on the hybrid!

B. mori, true hybrid, and B. mandarina. While I'm certain my moth is not a hybrid (the eggs were sold as white seductress lab specimens, the point being their genetics will be pure B. mori) It's very interesting to see an animal that shows a hint of the wild moth they came from. Five thousand years is truly a blink of an eye in evolution's mind; it often takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years for a population to diversify to species status (which is a human concept, but you know what I mean). These common aberrations show that even with extreme human selection, we cannot fully change the genetics of an organism in such a short period of time with breeding alone. This information and other further reading can be found easily through Researchgate and Wikipedia, I suggest checking through the primary sources listed at the bottom of these species articles.

[onenicebugperday]

New world silkmoth, Epia muscosa, Bombycidae

Photo 1 by easleybirding, 2 by jmtobin6975, 3 by carlosemunoz, 4 by antoine_guiguet_, 5-6 by heimatlos, 7 by dieterschulten, and 8 by losttinamou

[miyrumiyru]

I had a visitor, Fat brown moth in front of door <3

Wild Silkmoth (Bombyx mandarina)

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Domestic Silk Moth

Bombyx mori

The domestic silk moth is from the family Bombycidae. It is very closely related to the wild silk moth (Bombyx mandarina), which was first described in 1872 by Frederic Moore. The domestic silk moth was created through selective breeding in order to produce more silk and therefore lacks several behaviors of other moths.

Description This species has white hairy bodies, legs, and wings unlike the wild silk moth which is pigmented brown. This loss of color is due to the domesticated moths no longer needing camouflage. Additionally, this species wings form from larval imaginal disks, and although some may be able to hover, due to domestication the B. mori in incapable of prolonged flight as their bodies are too big to carry. This changes their mating behaviors.

Compared to the wild silk moth, the domesticated silk moth has increased cocoon size, body size, growth rate, and quicker digestion.

Wingspan Range: 3 – 5 cm (1.2 – 2.0 in)

Females are about 2 to 3 times the size of males to carry the eggs.

Diet and Habitat Silk moth larva or silkworms prefer to eat white mulberry leaves and other species of mulberries. They are also known to eat the leaves of the osage orange.

As domesticated species, these moths live in man made habitats for silk production.

It’s undomesticated relative the wild silk moth, B. mandarina, ranges from inland China to Korea and Japan.

Mating Since they cannot fly to find mates like the males of other silk moths species, the B. mori is completely dependent on humans for mating.

The eggs laid are put in and hatch in incubators after approximately 14 days.

Predators This species has no predators due to being taken care of by humans. They have also lost their camouflage, seen in the B. mandarina, from domestication.

Fun Fact Many Asian cultures such as Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai eat silkworms. They are roasted, boiled, and/or packaged for snack sale. They have also been proposed as food for astronauts on long missions.

(Source: Wikipedia)

[paledoptera-archive]

draw a moth every day challenge

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