World Ark Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 23) How Silk Is Produced 1 An adult female adult silk moth lays about 500 eggs, and then promptly dies. 2 Aft After about 10 d bt days, the eggs hatch and the larvae spend the next 35 days eating mulberry leaves. 3 5 The silkworm s spends about spen nds five days d producing silk and spinning its cocoon of a single, long thread. 4 6 The cocoons are c boiled to make it boile ed easier to unwind the easier th silk and kill the pupae a pup inside. If the silk moths insid de m were allowed to hatch, the long silk fibers would be cut. T The cocoons are unwound, and then the individual silk t filaments must be reeled together to form a thread large enough for weaving. Illustrations by Bryan Ardent The silk thread is cleaned, dyed and woven into fabric. www.heifer.org March/April 2008 | WORLD ARK 23 http://www.heifer.org
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