0 a type of caterpillar (= a form of young insect that is small, long, and has many legs) that produces threads of silk from which it makes a cocoon (= a covering for its body) --
1 a caterpillar that produces threads which are used to make silk --
There are also the silkworms.
Aid to the breeding of silkworms is something that we have mercifully passed by at this stage.
The second related to aid for silkworm breeding.
Only this week we have heard of the silkworms being affected by radio-activity, and also the trees upon which they live.
Therefore, silkworms may have a monitoring system to detect the damage, and may prepare subsequent pathways to disturb the formation of a normal acrosome tubule-basal body assembly.
This would be a powerful tool to study the mechanism of regulation of silkworm genes or to produce new races with specific characters, such as disease or high temperature resistance.
Spermatogenesis of the silkworm and its bearing on radiation induced sterility.
However, no such marker gene has been cloned in the silkworm.
