万思乐学V-Learn小西妈双语工程201801期406Max@20190314@Day370

卡丁

🎵Peppapig S2

📽Paw patrol S4E4

Silkworm Life Cycle

The life cycle of a silkworm, from a microscopic egg to a beautiful moth is simply mind-blowing. Let's explore the different stages of life of a silkworm.

Silk is a valuable fabric that symbolizes wealth and prosperity. In earlier times, use of silk was reserved only for kings and monarchs. The Chinese, about two thousand years ago, had already mastered the art of deriving silk from silkworms while the rest of the world was still in the darkness. 

The metamorphosis of a crawling worm into a moth is one of the most interesting transformations observed in nature.

Things we used for the sensory bin.

A big container

Cotton thread

Marshmallows

Toothpick

Leaves

Red paper

Scissor

Dropper

Food coloring

Egg is the first stage of a silkworm's life cycle. The female moth lays an egg about the size of an ink dot.Max squeezed a few drops of food coloring on the leaves to pretend the eggs.

Summer and the early fall are the proper times for the moth to lay eggs.

The eggs remain in dormant stage until spring arrives. The warmth of the spring stimulates the egg to hatch.

The silkworm, upon hatching, is about 1/8th of an inch and extremely hairy. Young silkworms can only feed on tender mulberry leaves. However, during the growth phase they can eat tougher mulberry leaves as well. 

The larval stage lasts for about 27 days and the silkworm goes through five growth stages called instars, during this time. During the first molting, the silkworm sheds all its hair and gains a smooth skin.

We cut the big mashmallows into small pieces and string them together with a toothpick.

Making the cocoon was just easy and simple. We used wrapped cotton thread wind the caterpillars.A few days later,the moths will creep out of the small opening at the end of the cocoon before the cocoons are harvested.

Actually,the silkworm make silk by spewing a substance called fibroin throw a small hole in their jaws called spinnerets just like spiders'.

Cocoon is the stage in which the larva spins silk threads around it, to protect itself from its predators. The larva traps itself inside the cocoon in order to pupate. The color of the cocoon varies, depending upon what the silkworm eats. It can range from white to golden yellow. The second molting occurs inside the cocoon, when the larva turns into a brown pupa. It takes about 2 - 3 weeks for the pupa to metamorphose into an adult moth.

The moths were paper cut outs.

Max drew tow moths,they seams like dragonflies.😅I cut down the antennea of one moth by mistake.Max was annoyed to me.😭

Once the adult moth comes out of its cocoon, its only purpose is to find a member of the opposite sex, and mate. Males are larger than females and more active. They flap their wings rapidly to attract the females. After mating, the male moth dies, while the female lays abundant eggs, after which she dies as well. There on, a new life cycle begins.

We talked about the entire life cycle of an silk worm and how they are different from other moths and even butterflies.

Silk is a natural protein fiber, produced by the larvae of certain specific insects, like caterpillars of moth. Other insects also produce silk.The best type of silk comes from the mulberry silkworm,which is obtained by domestication.

Did You Know?

Around 50,000 silkworms are killed, while extracting silk through sericulture, for making one silk sari.

Although, silkworms feed on mulberry leaves, it is not always possible to find them, especially during fall and winter. Commercial silkworm breeders feed larvae a substance called silkworm chow, which is a good alternative to mulberry leaves.

Silkworm life cycle is pretty short and simple. Yet, the various stages that it goes through during its short life.

We all know that silk was discovered in China, but how? Very few people know when, where, and how was it discovered. There are many legends about this strong and rich fabric; however, the following is the most popular one, and it goes like this. A Chinese Emperor named Huangdi was extremely annoyed seeing his mulberry trees getting damaged at a rapid rate and ordered his wife Xilingshi to find out the cause of this damage. The empress obeyed his command and started observing the trees very carefully for a few days. To her surprise, certain white-colored worms were constantly eating the leaves and then started spinning a shell around themselves with a shiny, white material. When the empress dropped one shell into hot water, she found a slender thread unwinding itself from the shell. Within some time, she was holding a single long, shiny thread, which is known as silk in today's world.

The babby piggy.

gorgeous：extremely beautiful or attractive.