Sericulture, the process of rearing silk-producing insects in captivity or collecting their silk in the field for human use, has been practiced for thousands of years. Various uses, mainly leading to the production of fabrics, have arisen independently many times in human societies. The surface texture of many cocoons and communal webs looks like paper, leather, or cloth, so it is understandable that ideas for exploitation arose repeatedly in ancient cultures. Probably more than 99% of the silk in commerce in the world today comes from a single species called the silkworm or mulberry silk moth, Bombyx mori (L.), of the family Bombycidae. This species is believed to have been cultivated for almost 5,000 yr in China and is used today around the world for educational and scientific study as well as for producing textiles.
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Richard S. Peigler (1993) studied this question.