Abstract:  Apoptosis is the cell autonomic decease by gene controlling to maintain the homeostasis of cells. Studying the mechanisms of apoptosis in the silkworm， Bombyx mori， an important model of Lepidoptera, has the representative significance. Apoptosis in the silkworm not only participates in the metamorphosis， but also in the natural immunity. Apoptosis plays an important role in promoting tissue degradation and removing redundant cells in the egg-larva-pupa-adult stages of B. mori through the regulation of apoptosis-related genes， and in the inhibition of B. mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) proliferation. In this article we reviewed the advances in the apoptosis-inducing factors，apoptosis-related genes and pathways in B. mori， and the effects of apoptosis on the development of B. mori in recent years， which will facilitate to deeply resolve such problems as the mechanism research on apoptosis not enough， the pathway of endoplasmic reticulum rarely explored and the linkage between various pathways unclear and so on， and lay the foundation for studying the mechanism of metamorphosis and the system of autoimmune in B. mori. 

Key words: Bombyx mori, apoptosis, mitochondrial pathway, death receptor pathway, endoplasmic reticulum pathway