In the mid-6th century CE, two monks, with the support of the Roman emperor Justinian I, acquired and smuggled living silkworms into the Roman Empire, which led to the establishment of an indigenous Roman silk industry that long held a silk monopoly in Europe.

Bombyx mori, commonly known as the domestic silk moth, is a moth species belonging to the family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of Bombyx mandarina, the wild silk moth. Silkworm are the larvae of silk moths. The silkworm is of particular economic value, being a primary producer of silk. The silkworm's preferred food are the leaves of white mulberry, though they may eat other species of mulberry, and even leaves of other plants like the osage orange. Domestic silk moths are entirely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. Wild silk moths, which are other species of Bombyx, are not as commercially viable in the production of silk.