4. Silk Worms

They had a display of some silkworms happily chomping on some mulberry leaves.

Silk production in China and Japan is a little different. The moth that is mostly used in these countries is monovoltine or bivoltine. These moths produce one or sometimes two batches of eggs each year. These are then put into a suspended environment so that they can induce hatching at a more convenient time. These cocoons are very large so they are better suited for machine reeling. They produce a filament that is usually between one and two kilometers long. The adult moths that are normally used for production are too fat to fly. The moths that can fly don't produce enough silk to be worth cultivating.