• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2005

Successful silkworm breeding attempts were made at Andhra Pradesh State Sericulture Research and Development Institute (APSSRDI), Hindupur, India in developing productive bivoltine silkworm hybrids. One hundred hybrid combinations involving 10 parents (five each of oval and peanut) were evaluated in complete diallel pattern and identified the combination APS$_{83}$ $\times$ APS$_{102}$ as most promising. This hybrid showed economic merit for the characters fecundity (524 eggs/laying), pupation percentage (96.0$\%$), cocoon yield per 10,000 larvae by weight (19.0 kg), cocoon weight (1.85 g), shell weight (41.7 cg), shell ratio (22.5$\%$), filament length (1,004 m), reelability (88.4$\%$), raw silk recovery (18.4$\%$) and neatness (92 point) over the control hybrid APS$_{9}$ $\times$ APS$_{8}$ The breeding process and identification of APS$_{83}$ $\times$ APS$_{102}$ is discussed in the paper.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.63-72
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• 2006

Parthenogenesis, the development of unfertilized ovum opens new perspectives in silkworm breeding in the development of homozygous breeds. In order to improve induction of artificial parthenogenesis in the excised unfertilized eggs of different breeds of the silkworm, Bombyx mori L., a new method was devised and the results were compared with the routine method. General and specific combining abilities and hybrid vigour of newly developed bivoltine breeds were analyzed utilizing bivoltine breeds viz., $CSR_2,\;CSR_4,\;CSR_{17}\;and\;NB_4D_2$ Estimation of GCA revealed superiority of the breeds, $DNB_1$ for eight characters followed by $DNB_4$ for five characters. Among the testers, $CSR_2$ was found good general combiner for seven characters followed by $CSR_{17}$ for four characters. A great deal of variations was observed among the hybrids studied. Five hybrids namely, $DNB_1{\times}CSR_2,\;DNB_4{\times}CSR_4,\;DNB_4{\times}NB_4D_2,\;DNB_6{\times}CSR_2\;and\;DNB_7{\times}CSR_2$ showed significant SCA effects for 5-6 characters. The hybrid, $DNB_4{\times}CSR_4$ showed its superiority by expressing significant hybrid vigour over BPV for 7 characters. Majority of the hybrids exhibited significant hybrid vigour for survival rate, yield/10,000 larvae by weight, cocoon weight, cocoon shell weight, filament length and denier.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.123-127
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• 2012

An experiment was carried out to boost the production of tasar crops through application of secondary nutrients. Different combinations of secondary nutrients were prepared and its effect was studied on the yield and quality of leaves of tasar food plant Terminalia tomentosa W & A with 2.4 m ${\times}$ 2.4 m spacing and cocoon characters of tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta Drury reared on them. Among different combinations of secondary nutrients, foliar application of magnesium sulphate (2%, w/v) and basal application of 3 quintal/ha of calcium carbonate (secondary nutrient combination SM5) was found to be the best in crop improvement. It improves the quantity and quality of leaves as well as the commercial characters of cocoons. As a result, silk production improves. Under this combination, leaf yield increased by 26.55% in comparison to control. Average increase in moisture, total mineral, crude protein and total carbohydrate was 3.26%, 20.84%, 15.39% and 17.85% respectively as compared with control. Further, bio assay studies revealed that average larval weight, E.R.R., cocoon weight, shell weight and silk ratio percent increased by 11.25%, 25.71%, 20.05%, 35.14% and 12.17% respectively over control which indicates that secondary nutrient combination $SM_5$ has significant role in improving the production of tasar crops.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.235-243
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• 1995

Recently, the cocoon production is reducing very steeply in Japan. The main reason for this cocoon reduction is due to high labor cost and the production expense is apt to rise year by year. Accordingly, the improvement of cocoon productivity by retrenchment of the production expense is intensively required in my country. Therefore, the silkworm rearing on the artificial diet is largely expected as the innovation techniques of sericulture. Since rearing of the silkworm on artificial diets has first been achieved in 1960, and the silkworm larvae were reared throughout all the instars on artificial diets(Fukuda et al., 1960, Ito & Tanaka, 1960). The artificial diets used at this time contained 50% or more of dried, pulverized mulberyy leaves as one of the main ingredients, and the composition was rather simple. When reared on these diets, larval growth and development were retarded, small cocoons appeared, and the adults laid only a small number of eggs. At first, we would like to study about nutritional requirement of the silkworm, using the chemically defined diet which prepared artificially. Subsequently, attempts were made to improve the diets by replacement of crude ingredients with possibly purer compounds, as mentioned later. Before giving the details on individual nutrient, I would like to summarize about the outline of utilization flow of various nutrients through the larval-pupal development and these daily quantitative requirements per body weight in the silkworm when they were reared on mulberry leaves.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.150-157
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• 1998

This study was carried out to define the effects of anti-juvenile hormone analogue(AJH) treatment at different silkworm larval stages on some silk filament properties. It was revealed that the treatments at the 1st and 2nd days of the 3rd instar as well as the 1st day of the 4th instar resulted to trimolters induction without lethal effect. The trimolters induced by treatment at the 1st day of the 4th instar showed the shortest larval duration and the lowest single cocoon weight, cocoon shell ratio, cocoon size, single filament length and denier of filament compared with those of the control, while the trimolters induced by the 3rd-instar treatment showed intermediate values. All treatments showed no significant differences from the aspect fo degumming ratio, elongation rate and crystallinity index of fibroin. However the silk filament obtained from the treatment at the 1st day of the 4th instar showed the highest tenacity which was revealed to be related to the better uniformity of filament by the means of microscopic photographing. FT-IR spectroscopy of the silk fibroin showed a sharp and strong peak at the position of 794.72 cm-1 in all AJH-treated samples regardless of trimolters induction, which was absent in control.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2004

In order to investigate the effects of supplementary nutrients on silkworms, Bombyx mori, an experiment was conducted with ascorbic acid treatments. Dietary supplements of ascorbic acid 1, 2 and 3% were fed to silkworm larvae through 1st to 5th instar, The larvae were fed by mulberry loaves of Kokoso variety and the supplementary loaves were used once a day. These treatments resulted in a significant increase of biological parameters such as larval weight, the rate of food consumption and the approximate digestibility of the food. But the economical parameters such as cocoon weight and cocoon shell weight didnt show considerable difference compared to control. Dietary supplement of 2% ascorbic acid increased the larval weight by 7.8% and reached to 1.065g, which had the highest weight increase in the fourth day of 4th instar larvae. The percentage of daily weight increase in this group of larvae (79.01%) had significant difference compared with other treatments. The nutritional efficiency index in this group of larvae was better than others. Also the abundance of biochemical macromolecules such as glucose, cholesterol, triacylglycerol and urea in haemolymph of larvae fed by 2% ascorbic acid increased to become 29.75 (mg/㎗), 24 (mg/㎗), 75.4(mg/㎗) and 32.1(mg/㎗) respectively. But protein contents of haemolymph of larvae in each treatment were not significantly different. Since all the results achieved were not considerable either statistically or economically, this method could not be recommended to improve the sericultural parameters.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2007

Precocious metamorphosis was induced in two popular bivoltine breeds i.e. YB and $NB_4D_2$ by an imidazole compound having anti-juvenile hormone activity. The chemical was administered by feeding treatment with mulberry leaf to freshly moulted (0-6 hrs) IV instar larvae. The dose of the chemical was found to be breed specific being 650 ppm for YB and 500 ppm for $NB_4D_2$. The chemical caused complete skipping up of the fifth instar larvae which is most susceptible to diseases. But IV instar was somewhat prolonged. As a result the total larval period was reduced by 4-5 days. However, some of the rearing and reeling parameters like cocoon yield, cocoon weight, shell weight, shell %, filament length and fecundity were reduced for that particular generation only. The effective rate of rearing (ERR %) was significantly increased in trimoulters during the most unfavourable August - September seed crop season. Number of cocoons / kg and number of male moth were significantly higher in trimoulters. These may be useful for preparation of $multi{\times}bi$ hybrid seed. Fine denier was also found in trimoulter cocoon which is the cause of getting fine silk filament from trimoulter cocoons. Normal mating behaviour and emergence pattern was recorded in trimoulters. Bivoltine trimoulter males also showed competence for mating with multivoltine females. These results suggest the possibility of getting trimoulter males during hot and humid seasons when rearing of bivoltine is almost impossible particularly in Eastern and North Eastern India.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.18
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• pp.43-51
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• 2000

Eleven inbred lines of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. were exposed to two main different temperature (23C and 25C) during the larval period in order to elucidate the effect of the temperature differences on their main characters under the, prevailing in Egyptial agro-climactic conditions. The results show that the temperature differences did not affect significantly the pupation ratio and cocoon shell ratio. However, they affected their larval duration to become shorter with the high temperature treatment ($27^{\circ}C$) and their cocoon shell weight and cocoon yield per box of silkworm eggs to be higher in the lower temperature($23^{\circ}C$). It was recommended that some inbred lines should be bred at the 23C throughout the whole larval period, particularly in being reared with high nutritional leaves in order to maximize the hybridization of cocoon yields.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.113-115
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• 2004

Six generations (P$_1$, P$_2$, F$_1$, BC$_1$, BC$_2$ and F$_2$) of four bivoltine silkworm crosses (SKAU-R-1 ${\times}$ Yakwei, SKAU-R-6 ${\times}$ Yakwei, CSR$_2$ ${\times}$ CSR$_4$ and SH$_{6}$${\times}$ NB$_4$D$_2$) were evaluated in a completely randomized block design with 5 replications for each treatment. The generation mean 2 in respect of 3 metric traits (single cocoon weight, single shell weight, and shell ratio ％), were subjected to Cavallis joint scaling test. Additive dominance model was found to be adequate in CSR$_2$${\times}$CSR$_4$ and SH$_{6}$${\times}$ NB$_4$D$_2$ for single cocoon weight and shell weight and SKAU-R-6 ${\times}$ Yakwei for shell ratio(％). Whereas, in rest of the crosses epistasis was evident in the traits under investigation. Magnitude of additive gene effect (d) was greater than dominance(h) in SH$_{6}$${\times}$NB$_4$D$_2$ and SKUA-R-6${\times}$Yakwei for shell ratio (％) and in CSR$_2$${\times}$ CSR$_4$ for shell weight. Thus selection for these traits in early segregating generations of these crosses would be effective for obtaining considerable genetic gain. gain.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 1974

This study has been carried out to investigate the effect of protein components of a diet on the increasing of larval body weight and diet efficiency, as well as the amylase activity of larval digestive juices during the 5th instar. Defending on the amounts of soybean meal as a protein source, the six different kind of artificial diets containing mulberry leaf powder fed to the larvae. The results obtained may be summarized as follows： 1. As the protein components of the diet were increased, the amount of increased larval body weight was also increased. 2. As the protein components of the diet were increased, both the cocoon weight and cocoon layer weight were also increased. 3. As the protein components of the diet were increased, both the amount of diet digested and coefficient of digestibility were also increased. 4. As the protein components of the diet were increased, the diet efficiency of larvae were also increased. 5. But the experimenters could not observe any correlation between the increase of protein components of a diet and the amylase activity of the digestive juices.