Bombyx mori with the opportunity to witness the life cycle of silkworms. The practice of raising silkworms by children as pets has, in non-silk farming South Africa, led to the development of extremely hardy landraces of silkworms, because they are invariably subjected to hardships not encountered by commercially farmed members of the species. However, these worms, not being selectively bred as such, are possibly inferior in silk production and may exhibit other undesirable traits. The full genome of the silkworm was published in 2008 by the International Silkworm Genome Consortium. Draft sequences were published in 2004. The genome of the silkworm is
Crustacean larva Crustacean larva Crustaceans may pass through a number of larval and immature stages between hatching from their eggs and reaching their adult form. Each of the stages is separated by a moult, in which the hard exoskeleton is shed to allow the animal to grow. The larvae of crustaceans often bear little resemblance to the adult, and there are still cases where it is not known what larvae will grow into what adults. This is especially true of crustaceans which live as benthic adults (on the sea bed), more so than where the larvae are planktonic and therefore more easily