{"id":6071,"date":"2025-06-11T12:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T10:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/?p=6071"},"modified":"2025-07-22T11:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T09:42:08","slug":"silk-moth-bombyx-mori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/silk-moth-bombyx-mori\/","title":{"rendered":"Silkworm (Bombyx Mori)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071?print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/pdf.png\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"View PDF\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071?print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Look closely \u2013 you&#8217;re standing in front of one of the most fascinating insects ever known to humans: the silkworm, <em>Bombyx mori<\/em>.<br><br>You might see it slowly munching on a leaf \u2013 or barely moving, wrapped in a cocoon it spun itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For over 5,000 years, this caterpillar has lived side by side with humans. Originally from China, it was domesticated to produce something truly special: silk \u2013 one of the most valuable natural fibers in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What you<em><strong>&#8216;<\/strong><\/em>re seeing here is the result of thousands of years of selective breeding. Humans chose specific individual silkworms that produced especially long silk fibers, had a calm temperament, and grew to be large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The silkworm is now completely dependent humans. Without fresh mulberry leaves \u2013 like the ones you see here \u2013 the species wouldn\u2019t survive. Today, the adult moth can no longer fly, can barely defend itself, and wouldn\u2019t stand a chance in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, the species you&#8217;re looking at does not exist in the wild at all. Its entire life cycle \u2013 from egg to caterpillar, to pupa in the cocoon, and finally to moth \u2013 takes place in human-controlled environments like this one. In most cases, the cocoons are used for silk production before the moth can even hatch. The caterpillar dies in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silkworms are also very important to science. Their simple genome makes them a popular model organism. Their silk is extremely tear-resistant, flexible, and biocompatible \u2013 making it valuable in medicine as artificial tissue or fine surgical sutures, as well as for medical research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here at the BIOTOPIA Lab, you&#8217;re invited to observe the animals at your own pace. They are not kept for silk production and are allowed to complete their full life cycle. You might soon see a caterpillar begin to spin its cocoon \u2013 or a female moth laying tiny eggs, from which new caterpillars will soon hatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take a moment to imagine what it\u2019s like to be in the skin \u2013 or better &#8211; in the cocoon \u2013 of this animal. What does it need to survive? What might its world feel like?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Look closely \u2013 you&#8217;re standing in front of one of the most fascinating insects ever known to humans: the silkworm, Bombyx mori. You might see it slowly munching on a leaf \u2013 or barely moving, wrapped in a cocoon it spun itself. For over 5,000 years, this caterpillar has lived side by side with humans. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hintergrundinfos-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6308,"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions\/6308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biotopialab.snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}