Moth will drink nectar. Some moths are farmed for their economic value. The most notable of these is the silkworm, the larva of the domesticated moth "Bombyx mori". It is farmed for the silk with which it builds its cocoon. , the silk industry produces more than 130 million kilograms of raw silk, worth about 250 million U.S. dollars, each year. Not all silk is produced by "Bombyx mori". There are several species of Saturniidae that also are farmed for their silk, such as the ailanthus moth ("Samia cynthia" group of species), the Chinese oak silkmoth ("Antheraea pernyi"), the Assam silkmoth
Bombyx mandarina true or mulberry silkmoths. The origin of the domesticated silkmoth is enigmatic. It has been suggested that it is the survivor of an extinct species which diverged from the ancestors of "Bombyx mandarina" millions of years ago. However, this is based on an untenable molecular clock hypothesis that assumes that wild and domestic silkmoths evolved equally fast after their lineages diverged. Rather, the effects of artificial selection have accelerated evolution in the domestic form to a point where it is hard to trace the origin of the numerous breeds of domestic silkworms even with the most modern molecular phylogeny methods.