What to do after silkworm cocooning?

The silkworm, an insect of the family Lepidoptera, is the main raw material source of silk and occupies an important position in human economic life and cultural history. Silkworm babies or girls, commonly known in South China and Taiwan, form cocoons when they grow to a certain stage. the cocoon is made of a 300-inch-900-meter-long silk. Let's take a look at how to deal with silkworms after cocooning.

Why can silkworms form cocoons?

The silkworm cocooning is related to the silk gland organs in the silkworm body. From the growth process of silkworms, in the larval stage, silkworms will digest and absorb the nutrients in mulberry leaves after eating a large number of mulberry leaves. Then, various amino acids in mulberry leaves will be absorbed and stored by the silk glands in the silkworm body. With the increase of silkworm age, the silk gland also increased, especially at the fifth age. From the appearance before spinning and cocooning, 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.

Why do silkworms cocoon?

From the physiological point of view of the silkworm, because the protein that makes up the silk gland is composed of amino acids, 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. Under natural conditions, the silkworm, as a completely abnormal insect, is very fragile at every stage of life, especially in the silkworm pupa stage, which will stop feeding, lose the ability to act, and be easily hurt by natural enemies. The silkworm evolves the behavior of spinning and cocooning, enclosing itself in a dense cocoon shell, so that it can not only avoid natural enemies to protect itself, but also safely turn into a silkworm pupa in the cocoon, and transform the organs in the silkworm pupa into the shape of a silkworm moth. and finally feathered into a silkworm moth.

What happens after the silkworm cocoons?

After cocooning, the silkworm will molt and pupate in the cocoon, break the cocoon in 8 to 10 days, and die naturally in a week after mating and laying eggs. Therefore, after cocooning, the silkworm can lay a piece of white paper at the bottom of the clean and odorless carton, and it is also covered with a layer of white paper (don't stick to death). Put the cocoon in the box, the cocoon-breaking moth will mate, and the female moth lays eggs on the paper. In silk production, if the pupa is allowed to metamorphose into an adult and naturally dissolve and drill out of the cocoon, the silk thread will become shorter and cannot be used for spinning and weaving silk, so the cocoon should be put into boiling water before it is broken to kill the pupa and make the cocoon easy to disassemble.