The diagrams illustrate the life cycle of the silkworm and the various stages involved in the production of silk cloth made from cocoons.
Overall, there are four stages in the life cycle which are eggs, silkworm larva, silk thread and cocoon. After the life cycle, the production of silk cloth begins and it involves six different processes which are selecting, boiling, unwinding, twisting, weaving and dyeing.
The life cycle starts with eggs. These eggs hatch into silkworm larvae in 10 days and they feed on mulberry leaves for about 4 to 6 weeks. Then, they start to produce silk thread by spinning it around themselves. After that about 3 to 8 days later silkworms produce enough silk around the whole body. They stay almost 16 days in the cocoons and after the 16 days they become adult.
When it comes to production of silk cloth, the process begins with selecting silkworm cocoons and placing them into water until they are boiled. Then, the boiled cocoons are unwound about 300 to 900 metres long . After the this, the threads are twisted to make them thinner and followed by the weaving and dyeing processes.