Bombyx mori 300 to about 900 m (1,000 to 3,000 ft) long. The fibers are very fine and lustrous, about 10 μm (0.0004 in) in diameter. About 2,000 to 3,000 cocoons are required to make a pound of silk (0.4 kg). At least 70 million pounds of raw silk are produced each year, requiring nearly 10 billion cocoons. Due to its small size and ease of culture, the silkworm has become a model organism in the study of lepidopteran and arthropod biology. Fundamental findings on pheromones, hormones, brain structures, and physiology have been made with the silkworm. One example of this was
Bombyx hybrid have to be kept in the same container. Since "Bombyx" hybrids are much more common than the other variation more is known about them. The domesticated silkworm ("B. mori") was domesticated from wild silkworm ("B. mandarina") more than 5,000 years ago. Bombyx hybrid The "Bombyx" hybrid is a hybrid between a female "Bombyx mori" moth and a male "Bombyx mandarina" moth. They produce silkworm larvae like all species of "Bombyx". The larvae look a lot like the other variations. They are brown in the first half and gray at the bottom half, but they get larger black spots than other