Any of various caterpillars that produce silk cocoons, especially the larva of a moth (Bombyx mori) native to Asia that spins a cocoon of fine, strong, lustrous fiber that is the source of commercial silk.
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Any of various caterpillars of moths that produce silk cocoons, especially Bombyx mori, the source of most commercial silk.
noun
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Any of certain moth caterpillars (esp. family Bombycidae) that produce cocoons of silk fiber: they feed chiefly on mulberry leaves, and some species (esp. Bombyx mori) are cultivated as the source of commercial silk.
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Other Word Forms
Noun
Singular:
silkworm
Plural:
silkworms
Silkworm Sentence Examples
Among the insects the bee and the silkworm are the most useful.
The common silkworm produces as a rule only one generation during the year; but there are races in cultivation which are bivoltine, or twogenerationed, and some are multivoltine.
Pasteur prosecuted his investigations into the silkworm disease at Alais, and the town has dedicated a bust to his memory.
But the first notice of the silkworm in Western literature occurs in Aristotle, Hist.
Thus he came to the conclusion that the malady had been inherent in many successive generations of the silkworm, and that the epidemic condition was only an exaggeration of a normal state brought about by the method of cultivation and production of graine pursued.