La Primavera and the silk worms are frenetic....

Visiting the

Sericulture Centre

Padova , a city of Veneto,

 that has a Sericulture research         

where you can see at first hand the specially humidified   

rooms which house trays of burgeoning

silkworms. We will visit when

the silkworms grow to their maximum

size. At that stage they have

voracious appetites and the sound of

them munching accompanies their frenzied growth cycle that
needs constant sustenance...

The Stazione Bacologica Sperimentale,

in which silkworm eggs are available

each year to interested silkworm 

like me. It was founded in 1871

by a decree of Vittorio Emanuele II,

though the actual founder was Enrico

Verson. It is a section of the Institute

TEXERE Newsletter Spring 2011

for the Experimental Agrarian Zoology

of Florence. The current director is Dr.

Luciano Cappellozza and the Institute

building is owned by the Provincial

Administration of Padua, which has

developed a museum with live collections

of insects. This includes exhibitions

on sericulture, apiculture and a

general display of Lepidoptera. The

sericulture part shows the silk collections

of the section as well as old tools

and machines used for the rearing of

the silkworms and the reeling of the

cocoon, which is ideal fo children

to obtain first hand experience of

these processes.

The institute is involved in scientific

projects on sericulture and moriculture

and contributes to the conservation

of two germplasm banks of about

50 varieties of Morus spp and about

120 strains of Bombyx mori. The institution

owns a mulberry field, also

used for experiments, that provides

the leaves necessary for the rearing

and breeding of the various Bombyx

strains.

Italy has been one of the main centres

of silk production in the world

since the 13th century and was third

in importance after China and Japan.

The Como region of Italy has always

been the main centre of silk production,

but the Veneto area has also

been very important and from medieval

times the Venetian traders flourished

from the production and trading

of silk cloth. The sericulture industry

was still a vital moneymaking practice

for the farm people in Veneto a

century ago. There was an Octogenarian

who struck up a conversation

when they saw us gathering mulberry

leaves who remembered the small

lean-tos attached to the houses where

silkworms were reared, a room of

their own - needing warmth at night

to survive.

The variety of colours of the cocoons

which are genetic variants of bombyx

mori is remarkable and not due to

feeding the creatures different leaves

(see photo). The frequency of groves

of mulberry trees in Northern Italy is

the only indication these days of the

silk-rearing industry which provided

income a hundred years ago thanks

to the industrious and short lived life

cycle of Bombyx whose cocoons were

consigned to Como where industrial

mills produced silk for ties, clothing

and scarves for the middle classes.

Another use was silk for upholstery

and jacquards which are still being

woven at Fondazione Lisio (www.fondazionelisio.

org) where I teach shibori resist dye  workshops every year.