A strikingly green caterpillar about as long as my little finger was attached to a sprig of oak leaves in our yard. Knowing the caterpillar with spikes on its back was the larvae of an Io silkworm ...

Mass-produced silk is made from domesticated silkworms, Bombyx mori, that are raised on farms. These silkworms–the caterpillar stage of the silk moth–are fed mulberry leaves until they are ready to ...