Silk moth

SuriK's picture
By SuriK on 2009-03-16 My Gallery
About Silk moth : PRINT

We learned about silk moths in our class. The silk moths started out as tiny brown eggs. After a few days, little caterpillars came out. These caterpillars feed on leaves. Our teacher had placed the caterpillars in a cardboard box with lots of mulberry leaves. In the next few days, they ate and got bigger. They stopped moving around and built a cocoon around themselves. Inside the cocoon, their skin started to grow and change. My teacher put each cocoon in a separate paper cup and gave each of us one to take home.

I kept my cup up on the mantle in our home. After a few days, when I was reading a book next to the mantle, I heard a faint fluttering sound. At first, I didn't know where the sound came from. But then, I noticed that it was coming from the mantle place. What a surprise, there was a white colored moth in my paper cup, next to the broken cocoon!
The silk moths don't eat anything and they are not able to fly. They only live for a few days. It was hard to see my dead moth after a few days.

Rangoli: Silk moth
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silk moth

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We learned about silk moths in our class. The silk moths started out as tiny brown eggs. After a few days, little caterpillars came out. These caterpillars feed on leaves. Our teacher had placed the caterpillars in a cardboard box with lots of mulberry leaves. In the next few days, they ate and got bigger. They stopped moving around and built a cocoon around themselves. Inside the cocoon, their skin started to grow and change. My teacher put each cocoon in a separate paper cup and gave each of us one to take home. I kept my cup up on the mantle in our home. After a few days, when I was reading a book next to the mantle, I heard a faint fluttering sound. At first, I didn't know where the sound came from. But then, I noticed that it was coming from the mantle place. What a surprise, there was a white colored moth in my paper cup, next to the broken cocoon!

Comments

rajamma_2's picture

rajamma_2

Mon, 2009-03-16 18:39

Sashank says it is beautiful.

lakshmiraghu's picture

lakshmiraghu

Mon, 2009-03-16 19:09

Surya... good info , in my village this is one of the money crop biz what most of the people doing, infact I have seen this in lot, next time I shall try to take few photos
in different stage and send you ok.

jayamohan's picture

jayamohan

Mon, 2009-03-16 21:51

very nice. I remember my old days when my children were school going! There used to be lots of butterfly moths at larva-pupa stage under the leaves of 'arali' plant. If we observe its growth daily, one fine morning you can see a butterfly coming out of it and fly in few hours! A treat to watch!

Lata's picture

Lata

Tue, 2009-03-17 11:19

Sashank, Surya is glad you enjoyed it.

Lakshmi, nice to know you were connected to Pattu-business too! I guess you are connected to all things beautiful! How about jewelry business? Smile

Jayaji, when I get a chance, I'll try to show my kids arali plants. That was an interesting bit of info.

judelined's picture

judelined

Tue, 2009-03-17 12:47

Surya a very interesting story on the life cycle of a silk moth... but so sad this pretty white moth had such a short life span...

rajamma_2's picture

rajamma_2

Thu, 2009-03-19 18:37

Surya,
We were learning about the life cycle of living things last year in class three.We learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly quite similar to the moth life cycle.What you wrote reminded me of this lesson.This moth in the picture is real or dead?
Sahana

Lata's picture

Lata

Thu, 2009-03-19 22:34

Sahana, Surya is not here now, so I'm going to answer on her behalf.
The moth in the picture is the real one, which came to our house in that cup as a cocoon.
Surya had placed it on the mantle, and the moth hatched out of the cocoon after a few days. But, the sad part is, it died after 3 days (they have a short lifespan).