Studies on the Effect of High Temperature on Fl Hybrids Between Polyvoltine and Bivoltine Silkworm Races of Bombyx mori L.

In order to introduce bivoltine races in a tropical country like India, it is necessary to have stability in cocoon crop under high temperature environments. Unlike any temperate country like Japan, the rearing conditions/environment, climatic conditions, quality of mulberry leaf and incidence of diseases are unpredictable in India. Geneticists and breeders of all the sericultural countries have experienced the influence of environment during the process of breeding. in order to select efficiently the breeds with high temperature tolerance, it is verb important to analyse clearly the heritability nature of high temperature tolerance. In light of the above, the present study was undertaken to determine the effect of high temperature treatment of (A) $35{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and 85${\pm}$5% RH for 24 hrs continuously, (B) $35{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and 85${\pm}$5% RH for 48 hrs continuously and (C) the control (25${\pm}1^{\circ}$ and 65${\pm}$5% RH in the normal rearing condition from the $3^{rd}of5^{th}$ instar on the pure races such as Moria, Nl37 and Cl46 as well as their Fl hybrids. The overall performance indicate that the hybrids are mare tolerant than the pure races. it was also observed that the overall performance declined in those batches where 48 hrs treatment was given. The most interesting observation noticed in this study was that there was maternal effect regarding temperature tolerance as evident from the better performance of those hybrids where the female parent used was more tolerant as pure race.