Artisans Angkor
When the worms have grown enough, they are put in baskets. From there, they will spin their cocoons in five days and will produce about three hundreds meters of silk each. The cocoons are then put in sunlight to avoid them undergoing their metamorphosis into mature moths. However, 20% of them reach the breeding process and the female moths will lay and hatch its eggs within nine to twelve days.
The cocoons are soaked in hot water in order to soften the sericin (also known as silk gum) which coat the fibres and stick the cocoons together. Silk threads are then unwound and reeled together to produce a single thread. Weavers at Angkor Silk Farm make both raw silk and fine silk that do not have the same texture at all. Sericin has not been completely removed from raw silk threads, which will give a rougher texture to the fabric at the end.
Eriogaster lanestris
Larvae mature through five stages, called instars, over the course of six to seven weeks. During early larval development (instars 1–3), larvae are small and black in coloration, and during late development (instars 4–5), larvae develop urticarial hairs and red coloration. In their fifth instar, larvae lose many of their social behaviors and colonies disband as individuals prepare for pupation.
"E. lanestris" eggs hatch in April and May, and following their emergence, caterpillars immediately construct tents out of silk at their hatching site, or nearby on the same bush. They live in these tents as colonies of approximately 200 of their full siblings during their development. They continually repair and expand the same structure throughout larval development. The tent consists of layers of silk fibers that form air pockets which serve to insulate the nest and provide resting spaces for caterpillars inside. Tent structures are severely damaged by heavy rains, which cause their silk layers to stick together, removing air pockets. Dried silk also becomes brittle and fragile, making it susceptible to breaking and tearing. Additionally, small eggars’ tents are bright white and not well-concealed, so they are easily located and damaged by predators like birds. Maintaining the integrity of the tent is essential to larval colonies’ survival, and they do not abandon the tent until just before pupation.