What is the name of the insect that produces silk?

The insect that produces silk is the silkworm. More precisely, the commercially important silkworm is the larva of the domesticated moth Bombyx mori. As it prepares to become a pupa, it spins a protective cocoon from a continuous filament made mainly of the protein fibroin, coated with sericin.

Silk production began in ancient China, where people learned to cultivate silkworms on mulberry leaves and carefully unravel their cocoons. According to Chinese tradition, Empress Leizu discovered silk after a cocoon fell into her tea, although this story is legendary. For centuries, China guarded the techniques of sericulture, and silk traveled west along the trade routes later called the Silk Road.

A common mix-up is choosing a spider: spiders also produce silk, but they are arachnids, not insects, and their silk is not the source of traditional textile silk. Honeybees make wax, while crickets do not produce silk. A single Bombyx mori cocoon can contain a filament hundreds of metres long.