Wild Silk Moth

The wild silk moth is the wild ancestor of the domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori, native to a range from inland China to Korea and Japan. Unlike its flightless domesticated descendant, the wild moth keeps a slender body and fully functional wings in the male, with dull greyish-brown colouring. Chinese populations carry 56 chromosomes against 54 in Japanese populations. Domestication of the silkworm drew its initial breeding stock from inland China, and the two species remain close enough to interbreed, though reproductive isolation has grown as the domesticated line lost the ability to survive independently.