> is it true? 
> [silkworms] Having no need, or even means, of feeding; having no bird or toad or lizard or insect enemies to avoid, because they are entirely protected, as their ancestors have been for the past five thousand years, by the silk-growers.

Yes, it is true for modern silkworms, as selection by silk producers resulted in things like (a) wings that are too small to allow flight (b) a larval stage that must be incubated to hatch (c) much physically larger moths, and (d) produce silk fibers that are much larger diameters than would ever be needed for protection in their cocoons.  This breeding was independently done by both the Chinese and the Japanese, so there was market competition, spying, smuggling, and theft of silkworms.

An interesting paper some years ago in Nature is attached, but I learned far more from a tour guide in Baku, Azerbaijan, which was a stop on the "silk road".  LL Bean silk long underwear was the el primo base layer for mountaineering until recent years, when the modern synthetics like Patagonia's "Capilene" both eclipsed silk and ended the fad over (itchy) "Merino" wool.




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