List of animals that produce silk

Silk is produced by a variety of animals, for different purposes, with various types being produced.

Insects

• Silkworms produce silk when undergoing larval to adult metamorphosis. This includes not only the domesticated Bombyx mori, but a wide range of moth species, several of which are commercially exploited for silk.
• Raspy crickets produce silk to form nests.
• Honeybee and bumblebee larvae produce silk to strengthen the wax cells in which they pupate.
• Bulldog ants spin cocoons to protect themselves during pupation.
• Weaver ants use silk to connect leaves together to make communal nests.
• Caddisfly larvae produce silk.
• Webspinners have silk glands on their front legs.
• Hornets
• Silverfish
• Mayflies
• Thrips
• Leafhoppers produce silk nests under the leaves of the trees where they live, to protect them against predators.
• Beetles
• Lacewings
• Fleas
• Flies
• Midges
• Caterpillars of many butterfly species use silk to create shelters or attach to substrates for pupation.
• Parasitic wasps such as braconids use silk cocoons for pupation.

Other animals

• The family Projapygidae in the order Diplura have cerci that contain silk glands.
• The mussel Pinna nobilis creates silk to bond itself to rocks. It is used to make sea silk.
• Spiders make spider silk for various purposes such as weaving their webs, protecting their eggs or as a safety line.
• The ampiphod Peramphithoe femorata uses silk to make a nest out of kelp blades. Another ampiphod, Crassicorophium bonellii, use silk to build shelter.
• Carp produce fibroin units, a component of silk, to attach their eggs to rocks.
• Spider mites make webs that protects them against predators.
• Pseudoscorpions make silk chambers in which they molt.
• Goats have been genetically modified to produce milk containing extractable silk proteins.

External links

• US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, documentation about various animals that produce silk and why.