Bombyx mori , the domestic silkmoth , is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae . It is the closest relative of Bombyx mandarina , the wild silkmoth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silkmoth. It is an economically important insect, being a primary producer of silk . A silkworm's preferred food is white mulberry leaves, though they may eat other mulberry species and even osage orange . Domestic silkmoths are closely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. Wild silkmoths are different from their domestic cousins as they have not been selectively bred; they are not as commercially viable in the production of silk. Sericulture , the practice of breeding silkworms for the production of raw silk, has been under way for at least 5,000 years in China, [1] whence it spread to India , Korea , Japan , and the Wes...
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