Silkworm

The silkworm is the larva of Bombyx mori, the domestic silk moth, a species in the family Bombycidae and the closest relative of the wild silk moth Bombyx mandarina. Silkworms are of major economic importance as the primary producers of commercial silk, and feed mainly on the leaves of white mulberry, though they can eat other mulberry species and occasionally other plants. After millennia of selective breeding the domestic silk moth is now entirely dependent on humans for reproduction, unlike its wild relatives, which remain far less commercially useful for silk production.