Embioptera other food sources. Subsociality is a trade-off for the female, as the energy and time that is exerted into caring for her young is rewarded by giving them a much greater chance of surviving and carrying on her genetic lineage. Some species do share galleries with more than one adult, however most groups consist of one adult female and her offspring. Embiopterans produce a silk thread highly similar to that produced by the much better known silkworm "Bombyx mori". The silk is produced in spherical secretory glands in the tarsi of the embiids enlarged forelimbs, and can be produced by
Bombyx mandarina Bombyx mandarina Bombyx mandarina, the wild silkmoth, is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of "Bombyx mori" the domesticated silkmoth or "silkworm" (properly, this refers to the caterpillars only). Unlike the domesticated relative which is unable to fly or indeed persist outside human care, the wild silkmoth is a fairly ordinary lepidopteran. Its main difference from the domesticated taxon is the more slender body with well-developed wings in males, and the dull greyish-brown colour. "Bombyx mandarina" and the domesticated "Bombyx mori" constitute two of the currently identified eight species of the genus "Bombyx", the