F

arming and harvesting barong silk is a more complex system than farming white silkworms and is a project that has fascinated silkworm expert Djoko Sasmito for some time.

“Barong moths are very difficult to farm. I have been studying techniques for the past year. These are very different from white silkworms with much longer breeding cycles,” says Djoko, who has been studying silkworms since 1975 and has instructed silk farmers from Timor Leste to Bali and Java.

“From eggs, the barong caterpillars grow and feed for 35 to 40 days, then they begin to form their cocoons. They live within these for 15 days and emerge as adult moths to breed at night. They spend a full 24 hours breeding and then the female lays between 200 and 300 eggs. These eggs and cocoons are far larger than white silkworms at up to ten grams for a barong cocoon against the two grams of a white silk caterpillar cocoon,” says Djoko.

Emerging from their cocoons into large wire pens allows the moths to fly and breed as if they were in the wild. “The female lays her eggs around the cage so these can be collected and grown on,” says Djoko of the barong silk farming that allows these superb moths to live almost as if they were in the wild.