I had guessed awhile back that they _might_ be able to test the silk by taking a small bit from a cocoon. (Note that I also said that they might want to wait until the moths emerge.) But since I've learned that the silk is "glued" together to form the cocoon and it's not as simple as just unwinding a bit. Commercially they boil the cocoons or use something to dissolve the glue, either of which is likely to harm the worm. If that's the case they will probably just wait until the cocoons emerge.
If they could have done it by just taking a small sample, I think we would have heard something already.
Also, the silk does not contain DNA so they could not use a PCR test (which can work from an exceedingly small sample) so they'd have to test for the silk proteins which would take larger amounts of a sample.
Looks like we'll have to wait til mid August. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a PR on a new lab space or deal on Monster Silk before then.
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