Friday Sprog Blogging: meet the silkworms (part 1).

This week, our first-ever video sprog blog. (Yeah, I know, I'm going to have to turn in my Luddite card now.) Because it's hard to do silkworms justice unless you can watch them squirm!

Recall that these silkworms (who you've already seen in pictures) hatched from eggs that came home last June and stayed in the refrigerator until spring (when mulberry trees are nice and leafy).

Dr. Free-Ride's better half warns that the silkworms are slightly out of focus in this video. I remind you that here at Friday Sprog Blogging, we make a point of protecting the identities of the very young. Yeah, that's right, I meant them to be blurry! I don't want these wee caterpillars to have to deal with creepy internet stalkers!

Meet the silkworms:

If you eat that much mulberry leaf ...

A safe place to pupate:

More like this

We're going on three weeks since the first of the Free-Ride silkworms made a cocoon.
The Free-Ride offspring have been using the silkworms as a springboard for discussions of math as well as biology.
We offer a couple more video sprog segments with the much enlarged silkworms. It won't be long before they're spinning cocoons (we're guessing -- and the mulberry trees are hoping), so these may be the last of their baby videos: Silkworm breeding:
Those wee little silkworms which you saw in videos

Don't you worry about the Silkworm Liberation Front?

By Denis Alexander (not verified) on 08 May 2009 #permalink

I've been there and raised those. Wait til they pupate in your drapes. And after they hatch out ... let's just say that silk (worm) moth sex is not an edifying sight. Have fun!

By Marianne Porter (not verified) on 08 May 2009 #permalink

I hope they do better than my bees. I'll need new bees...

By Uncle Fishy (not verified) on 08 May 2009 #permalink