The natural fiber silk is spun by the larvae of which creature?

The natural fiber silk is spun by the larvae of the silkworm.

Most commercial silk comes from the domesticated silkworm, the larva of the silk moth Bombyx mori. Before becoming a moth, the caterpillar secretes a continuous protein filament from specialized glands near its mouth and winds it into a protective cocoon. A single cocoon can contain a filament hundreds of meters long.

Silk production, or sericulture, was developed in ancient China and was closely guarded for centuries. The fiber later traveled west through trade routes commonly called the Silk Road. Although spiders also produce strong silk-like fibers, spider silk is not the source of ordinary commercial silk because spiders are difficult to raise in large colonies and are territorial.

The term “silkworm” can be slightly misleading: it is not a worm but a caterpillar. After the cocoon is formed, processors usually unravel and combine filaments to make a usable thread. If the moth emerges naturally, it breaks the filament into shorter pieces, producing spun rather than reeled silk.