The origin and dispersal of the domesticated Chinese oak silkworm, Antheraea pernyi, in China: A reconstruction based on ancient texts

Yanqun Liu1a*, Yuping Li 1b, Xisheng Li2c, and Li Qin1d

1Department of Sericulture, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110161, China
2Sericultural Institute of Liaoning Province, Fengcheng 118100, China

Abstract

Sericulture is one of the great inventions of the ancient Chinese. Besides the mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori), Chinese farmers developed rearing of the Chinese oak silkworm (Antheraea pernyi) about 400 years ago. In this paper, the historic records of the origins and dispersal of the domesticated Chinese oak silkworm in China are summarized. The first document with clearly recorded oak silkworm artificial rearing appeared in 1651, although Chinese oak silkworm was documented in about 270 AD. All of the evidence in the available historic records suggests that the domesticated Chinese oak silkworm originated in central and southern areas of Shandong Province in China around the 16th century, and then was introduced directly and indirectly by human commerce into the present habitations in China after the late 17th century. The results strongly support the hypothesis that only one geographically distinct event occurred in domestication of the modern Chinese oak silkworm.

Keywords: Chinese oak silkworm, Antheraea pernyi, artificial rearing, historic record

Correspondence: a*liuyanqun@syau.edu.cn, bvickypingping@yahoo.com.cn, clixisheng008@163.com, dqinli1963@163.com, *Corresponding authors

Received: 5 July 2009 | Accepted: 27 August 2009 | Published: 15 October 2010

ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 180

Liu Y, Li Y, Li X, Qin L. 2010. The origin and dispersal of the domesticated Chinese oak silkworm, Antheraea pernyi, in China: A reconstruction based on ancient texts. Journal of Insect Science 10:180, available online: insectscience.org/10.180


Figure 1