What kind of food does the "abnormal insect" silkworm eat? Why are you spinning?

China is the country of origin of sericulture and the main source of silk raw materials. It plays an important role in human economic life and cultural history. When I was in primary school, my favorite was to raise a few silkworm babies at home. What kind of food do silkworms eat? Why are you spinning?

First, the brief introduction of silkworm

Bombyx mori is an insect of Lepidoptera and Bombyx mori family, belonging to abnormal insects. The most common is Bombyx mori, also known as Bombyx mori, which is native to China. Its development temperature is 7-40 ℃, and the optimum temperature for rearing is 20-25 ℃. It is mainly distributed in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions. At least 3000 years ago, China began artificial sericulture. The life of silkworm goes through more than 50 days of egg-ant silkworm-mature silkworm-cocoon-silkworm moth.

What kind of food do silkworms eat?

Silkworms can be divided into silkworms, tussah silkworms, castor silkworms, Japanese silkworms and amber silkworms. Different kinds of silkworms eat different foods.

1. Silkworm

Bombyx mori is the silkworm, silk is an excellent textile fiber, is the raw material of satin, the main food is mulberry leaves.

In addition, in addition to eating mulberry leaves, silkworms can eat a lot of food, such as Zhe leaves, elm leaves, fig leaves, Artemisia willow leaves, dandelion leaves, lettuce leaves, lettuce leaves, green onion leaves, Brahmin ginseng leaves and so on. Although many leaves can be fed to silkworms, their leaves are generally of low nutritional value and can not raise silkworms well, so there is no practical significance. Modern scientific progress, silkworms can also eat silkworm feed. But the main ingredient is also mulberry leaf powder, but mulberry leaf is the most suitable natural food.

2. Tussah

Tussah silkworms take the leaves of oak plants of Fagaceae such as tussah, Mongolian tussah and mistletoe as fodder, and can also take the leaves of plants such as Artemisia willow, mountain stator, chestnut, maple, pear, apple and so on. Tussah silk is the raw material of tussah silk, and tussah pupa is edible. And moths are the raw materials of chemical industry, medicine and food industry.

3. Bombyx mori

The main food of Bombyx mori is the leaves of tussah of Fagaceae, such as Liaodong tussah, Mongolian tussah, tethered tussah, sharp tussah, etc., the cocoon color is green, can be reeled, the silk quality is beautiful, soft, and can keep natural green without dyeing, and has a unique luster.

4. Castor silkworm

The main food of castor silkworm is castor silkworm leaves as food, mainly as raw material for silk spinning, spinning castor silk.

5. Amber silkworm

Amber silkworm's main food is nanmu leaves as the food, amber cocoon color is golden yellow, can be reeling, its fabrics for the production of valuable clothing.

Third, why do silkworms spin silk?

Cocooning is the instinct of silkworms, which is related to the silk gland organs in the silkworm body.

The main results are as follows: 1. from the point of view of the growth process of the silkworm, because the silkworm will eat a large number of mulberry leaves at the larval stage, all kinds of amino acids in the mulberry leaves will be absorbed and stored by the silk glands in the silkworm body, and the silk glands will increase with the increase of silkworm. from the appearance, we can see that the chest of the silkworm is slightly transparent, which is due to the accumulation of a large amount of protein in the silk gland.

2. From the perspective of silkworm physiology, the reason for silkworm cocooning is that the protein that makes up the silk gland is composed of amino acids, and if there are too many amino acids in the silkworm body, the silkworm will be poisoned, so the silkworm needs to remove amino acids to achieve the purpose of detoxification.

3. In addition, the silkworm, as a completely abnormal animal, is very fragile at the critical stage of metamorphosis. At this time, the silkworm cocooning behavior can not only avoid natural enemies to protect itself, but also safely turn into a silkworm pupa in the cocoon. And let the organs in the silkworm pupa change into the form of silkworm moth, and finally feathered into silkworm moth.

The above is the introduction of what food silkworms eat, generally we raise silkworms, mainly eat mulberry leaves, other green vegetable leaves can also be eaten in the right amount.