Thursday, February 26, 2009

My new offspring at 3 days old

How quickly the excitement dies down at a new arrival! At three days old the silkworm larvae are showing signs of growing up: they are losing their hair and growing paler, and of course they have become much larger. They are still in their first instar - the period of time before their first moulting. Soon they are supposed to stop whatever they are doing and play a sort of etymological game of statues. They will be gathering their thoughts, or maybe their skin cells, so that they slip from their old restrictive skin and expose their new one.


But in the meantime, they keep eating...and wriggling.

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2 Comments:

Blogger jem said...

Oh yes, they look different. More like mealworms or long maggots now. I think some of my garden birds would like these!

I like the image of them as thoughtful statues. I could waste a lot of time wondering what the deepest thoughts of a silkworm might be...

Fri Feb 27, 02:46:00 pm  
Blogger Clare Dudman said...

Yes, a good meal for birds, I think. It may come to that if the food I've ordered doesn't get here soon!

Fri Feb 27, 10:53:00 pm  

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