The Silkworm Is Not A Worm!

The silkworm is actually the larva (caterpillar) stage of a moth. So, that makes the silkworm an insect. It spins itself in a silk cocoon about the size of a cotton ball. The cocoon is made of one single thread nearly a mile long. Within the cocoon, if the process is allowed to complete itself, the worm is changing into a moth and will emerge as an adult moth one to two weeks after entering the cocoon. The only task of a male and female adult is to find each other, mate, and die. Their fertilized eggs then mature into larva and the cycle repeats itself.

In The Deadliest Hate, Miriam visits Judah’s half-brother in Caesarea:

My eyes were so overwhelmed by the excess that at first, I saw only an abstract field of color and light. But the speckles gradually coalesced into sofas, armchairs, and benches as well as dining couches padded with cushions of Chinese silk. All were illuminated by an eclectic mix of ornate candelabra, some bronze, others brass and silver, one more flamboyant than the next.

Long before the Romans, the lands of the Ancient Mediterranean had already become enamored with silk. Homer referred to silk when in the Odyssey, he has Penelope question an apparent stranger about her husband’s clothing. He answered that Odysseus wore a shirt “gleaming like the skin of a dried onion,” undoubtedly referring to the lustrous quality of silk.

The Chinese had a monopoly on the production of silk, perfecting the process and keeping it a mystery. But the mystery in The Deadliest Hate can be bought here with just a click.