Silk Silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm "Bombyx mori" reared in captivity (sericulture). The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors. Silk is produced by several insects, like silk worms but generally only
Crustacean larva long rostrum, and a spine on either side of the carapace; the first post-larva closely resembles the adult. Porcelain crabs have two or three larval stages, in which the rostrum and the posterior spine on the carapace are "enormously long". Hermit crabs pass through around four larval stages. The post-larva is known as the "glaucothoe", after a genus named by Henri Milne-Edwards in 1830. The glaucothoe is long in "Pagurus longicarpus", but glaucothoe larvae up to are known, and were once thought to represent animals which had failed to develop correctly. Like the preceding stages, the glaucothoe is symmetrical, and