Breeding of New Productive Bivoltine Hybrid, CSR12 $\times$ CSR6 of Silkworm Bombyx mori L.

With an objective of evolving quantitatively and qualitatively superior bivoltine breeds/hybrids of silkworm Bombyx mori L. for tropical conditions, breeding work was initiated in Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Mysore during 1992 by utilizing two Japanese hybrids namely BNl8$\times$BCS25 and Shunrei$\times$Shogetsu along with Indian evolved breed, KA. The breed CSR12 which is characterized with sex-limited larval marking and white oval cocoons was evolved from the Japanese hybrid BNl8 ${\times}$ BCS25 by crossing with KA, while the breed CSR6 which is characterized with normal marking (marked larvae) and white dumbbell cocoons was extracted from the Japanese commercial hybrid Shunrei${\times}$Shogetsu through continuous inbreeding coupled with selection. After fixation, these breeds along with other newly evolved breeds were subjected to hybrid study under optimum environmental conditions in the laboratory for expression of full potential of the genotypes. These hybrids were evaluated by Multiple Trait Evaluation Index (Mano et al., 1993). The hybrid CSR12${\times}$CSR6 was selected based multiple trait evaluation index value. The hybrid CSR12$\times$CSR6 recorded survival of 96.0%, shell weight of 50.0 cg, shell ratio of 24.3%, raw silk percentage of 19.6, filament length of 1,216 m, boil off loss of 22.4% and renditta of 5.1. On the other hand, the control hybrid (KA ${\times}$ NB4D2) has recorded survival of 90.6%, shell weight of 42.1 cg, shell ratio of 20.4%, raw silk percentage of 15.9, filament length of 999 m, boil off loss of 24.8% and renditta of 6.3. The hybrid CSR12$\times$CSR6 was authorized during 1997 by Central Silk Board, Government of India for commercial exploitation during favourable months based on national level race authorization test.