• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.93-119
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• 2014

Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a polyphagous silk producing forest silkworm of commercial importance in India. Forest dependent people rear its larvae on different forestry host plants twice or thrice in a year for small household income. Larvae of A. mylitta feeds on many forest tree species, but always show a great degree of selectivity as a function of its behavioural responses to physical structure and chemical features of the host plants. Cocoon crop of A. mylitta is influenced by heterogeneity of tasar food plants and climatic conditions of the habitat. The role of host plants, temperature, humidity, rainfall, photoperiod and climatic variables on the growth and development of insects have clearly been demonstrated. This article entails an in-depth analysis on ecological and nutritional aspects of A. mylitta, which may provide selective information to researcher and forest managers, who are particularly associated with livelihood improvement of the poor people in forested area through location specific forest insect industry.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta is a commercial forest silkworm in India that produces tasar silk, but never experimented in Uttarakhand, a Himalayan state of India. A. mylitta express divergent phenotypic characters under different ecological conditions; so, we studied the effect of seven forest tree species in two rearing seasons on variability in silk gland weight of Daba (bivoltine) ecorace of A. mylitta at Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand during 2012 and 2013. We used two-way completely randomized block factorial design and Post HOC Tukey's HSD test to analyse the collected data and there after carried out multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that silk gland weight differed significantly between rearing seasons (DF=1, F=2333.98, p <0.05), host plants (DF 6, F= 1516.25, p <0.05) and their interactions (DF=6, F=7.10, p <0.05). Higher silk gland weight was found in second rearing season than the first on all the host tree species. Terminalia alata fed A. mylitta larvae showed the highest silk gland weight of 8.03 and 9.47 g in first and second rearing seasons, followed by T. tomentosa (7.19 & 9.01g), T. arjuna (6.8 & 8.08 g) and L. speciosa (6.57 & 7.83 g) fed larvae, respectively. Post HOC Tukey's HSD test indicated that silk gland weight of L. speciosa and T. arjuna fed larvae in both the rearing seasons did not differ significantly. E.I. analysis also confirmed that T. alata, T. tomentosa, T. arjuna and L. speciosa are better in their order of merit than T. bellirica , T. chebula and L. tomentosa. Multiple regression analysis indicates that larval weight gain is a strong predictor (β=1.002, t=346.777, p = <0.05) for the silk gland weight of A. mylitta ; however, larval duration had significant negative regression weight (β=-0.270, t=-8.436, p = <0.05) on mean weight of silk gland.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.249-253
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• 2009

Raily ecorace of Indian tasar silkworm is wild in nature and distributed abundantly in dense deciduous forest on Shorea robusta (Sal) in Bastar ($17^{\circ}4'$ and $20^{\circ}34'$ N, $80^{\circ}15'$ and $82^{\circ}15'$ E and altitude ranging from 150 to 1200 mMSL) forest ranges of Chhattisgarh, India. It is represented by about 20 populations. Out of those, eleven populations showed intra- as well as inter- population variability based on phenotypic expression and also in major economic traits viz. cocoon weight, shell weight, filament length and denier. Genetic diversity in these eleven populations was studied using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers. The band profiles generated with eight ISSR primers have depicted variation in band size. All the primers exhibited polymorphism which is an indicative of the genetic variation in individual Raily silkworm. Among the populations, total polymorphism recorded was 76%. The population genetic aspects assessed through POPGENE software package are discussed in the paper. Nei's gene diversity (h) ranged from 0.194 to 0.337 exhibiting high heterozygosity. Relevance of the present study is of high significance in formulating conservation strategies and sustainable utilization of the economically important Raily ecorace of Antheraea mylitta.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.243-264
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• 2013

Antheraea mylitta Drury is a commercial silk producing forest insect in India and Xanthopimpla pedator Fabricius is its larval-pupal endoparasitoid, which causes pupal mortality that affects seed production. Effects of host plants, rearing season and their interactions on parasitic behaviour of X. pedator were studied here, as influence of these factors on biological success of X. pedator is not known. Seven forest tree species were tested as food plants for A. mylitta, and rate of pupal parasitization in both the rearing seasons were recorded and analysed. Results showed that rearing season and host plants significantly affected the rate of pupal parasitization in both the sexes. Pupal mortality was found significantly higher (14.52%) in second rearing season than the first (2.89%). Likewise, host plants and rearing seasons significantly affected length, diameter, and shell thickness of cocoons in both sexes. Out of all infested pupae, 85.59% were found male, which indicated that X. pedator chooses male spinning larva of A. mylitta for oviposition, but we could not answer satisfactorily the why and how aspect of this sex specific parasitic behaviour of X. pedator. Multiple regression analysis indicated that length and shell thickness of male cocoons are potential predictors for pupal parasitization rate of X. pedator. Based on highest cocoon productivity and lowest pupal mortality, Terminalia alata, T. tomentosa, and T. arjuna were found to be the most suitable host plants for forest based commercial rearing of A. mylitta in tropical forest areas of Uttarakhand state, where it has never been reared earlier. Sex and season specific interaction of X. pedator with its larval-pupal host, A. mylitta is a novel entomological study to find out explanations for some of the unresolved research questions on parasitic behaviour of X. predator that opens a new area for specialised study on male specific parasitization in Ichneumonidae.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to elucidate the difference in the amount of phytochemicals and anti-oxidant activities of the freeze-dried 5th instar 3rd day silkworm powder (FDSP) and 7 HongJams (HJs). Three primary colors of light of 8 silkworm powders revealed why each sample had unique color. The visual and absorption spectrum analyses of 80% methanol (MeOH) extracts of 8 silkworm powders revealed that white jade (WJ)-FDSP extracts showing strong forest-green colors had different absorption spectrum from 7 HJs. Among 7 HJs, the absorption spectrum of light green silkworm (LGS)-HJ extract was different from those of other HJ extracts. The amounts of total flavonoids and phenolic compounds of WJ-FDSP were 423.0±9.21% and 252.3±12.86%, respectively, more than those of WJ-HJ. Among 7 HJs, the amounts of total flavonoids and phenolic compounds in LGS-and red silkorm (RS)-HJ extracts were significantly more than those of WJ-HJ extract. Consistent with the amounts of phytochemicals, radical scavenging activity and reducing ability of WJ-FDSP extract were significantly higher that other HJ extracts. Among 7 silkworm powder extracts, LGS-HJ extract showed significantly higher radical scavenging activity and reducing ability than those of WJ-HJ extract. But, RS-HJ extract only showed significantly higher radical scavenging activity than that of WJ-HJ extract. Taken together, the amounts of phytochemicals in 8 silkworm powders contributed on their colors and anti-oxidant activities.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.166-179
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• 2013

In India, forest based insect enterprises has never been linked up with any forest management activity, either as a forest conservation strategy or to reduce the poverty in forested area. This investigation indicated that when forest dependent people are associated with forest insect industry (FII) like forest sericulture, lac culture or apiculture; this income generating activity links livelihood with forest conservation, and generates a viable model of collaborative forest management (CFM). In this model different stakeholders work together as a coherent entity for unified goal of managing the forest for well-being of the poor people in fringe areas. Article summaries and evaluates the prospect of India specific forest insect industry, and discusses how and to what extent integration of FII could be a viable livelihood component in CFM to conserve the forest and insect biodiversity. We analysed a case study on forestbased rearing of tropical tasar silkworm rearing in Central India from CFM perspective. Arguments in this communication are intended to provide forest managers and policy-makers with necessary input to consider location specific FII in CFM mode to provide a continuous source of small income to forest dependent people to ensure long lasting success of their forest management endeavours.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

The wild silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a polyphagous silk producing insect that feeds on Terminalia arjuna, T. tomentosa and Shorea robusta and is distributed in the forest belts in different states of India. Phenotypically distinct populations of the A. mylitta are called "eco-race" or "ecotypes". Genetic improvement of this wild silkworm has not progressed much due to lack of adequate information on the factors that control the expression of most of the economically important traits. Considering the amazing technological advances taking place in molecular biology, it is envisaged that it is now possible to take greater control on these intractable traits if a combination of genetic, molecular and bioinformatics tools are used. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping is one such approach that has extensively been used in both animal and plant system to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for a number of economically important traits. LD mapping has a number of advantages over conventional biparental linkage mapping. Therefore, LD mapping is considered more efficient for gene discovery to meet the challenge of connecting sequence diversity with heritable phenotypic differences. However, care must be taken to avoid detection of spurious associations which may occur due to population structure and variety interrelationships. In this review, we discuss how LD mapping is suitable for the dissection of complex traits in wild silkworms (Antheraea mylitta).

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.24 no.1 s.62
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• pp.34-38
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• 1985

Effects of some artificial diets containing pulverized silkworm pupae On the oviposition of a green lacewing, Chrysopa formosa, were studied. The pulverized silkworm pupae with honey seemed to be a good diet for the egg-laying activity of field-collected adults in the beginning of rearing, but their fecundity progressively decreased. Newly emerged adults. did. not lay eggs when fed the above diet, but they were able to lay eggs when the silkworm pupae were defatted and provided with honey. An adult female laid an average of 166.8, 110.2, 96.1, and 66.1 eggs after spending 5, 9, 9, and 11 days for the initiation of oviposition when supplied with various diets i.e. the cabbage aphid, defatted silkworm pupae with additive constituents, mixture of intact and defatted silkworm pupae with additive constituents, and defatted silkworm pupae with honey, respectively.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.26-30
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• 2015

Tropical Tasar culture is forest and agro-based activity that covers agricultural and industrial activity. Tasar silk is produced by the silkworm, Antheraea mylitta which is polyphagous in nature. A large number of pests are reported to attack both the host plant as well as silkworm. As the rearing is conducted outdoor silkworms are exposed to attack of various pests during their life cycle. Eocanthecona furcellata (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is the major predator of tasar silkworm during young age rearing. Both nymphs and adults of the stink bug suck the heamolymph of silkworm leading to death. The present work was undertaken to study the life cycle of E. furcellata on larvae of vapourer tussock moth which is a major pest of tasar host plants. The incubation period, nymphal duration and total developmental period from egg to adult was $8.0{\pm}0.45d$, $16.0{\pm}3.24$ and $22.0{\pm}4.20d$, respectively. Pre-oviposition, oviposition and longevity of male and female stink bug was $3.20{\pm}0.38$, $17.60{\pm}1.86$, $42.40{\pm}1.94$, $37.00{\pm}3.18d$, respectively. Analysis of the data revealed no significant difference in life cycle of the predator when provided silkworm and vapourer tussock moth larvae as hosts. Which clearly indicates that E. furcellata can multiply on vapourer tussock moth larvae during non rearing periods. Adoption of recommended pest control measures for defoliators of tasar host plants during non-rearing periods will help in reducing the incidence of host plant pests and also in reducing the incidence of stink bug during rearing season. During the study it was also observed that larvae semilooper, boll headed caterpillar and nymphs of leaf hopper serve as alternate/secondary hosts to E. furcellata during non rearing seasons.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.29
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• pp.205-230
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• 1995

The publication of books on modern agriculture started under the influence of Silhak Thought developed from the late Chosun Dynasty. The common intention found in these publications is the objective to enrich the country through increased agricultural productivity and thus to secure national independence from the surrounding powers. The study reviews three different categories in this area; five general books on agriculture, three on agriculture related legal regulations, and ten books introducing techniques of commercial agriculture. The first category is comprehensive treatment of general agricultural content and the second is legal regulations which affected the contemporary agriculture. The third category is introductory books on commercial techniques aimed at accumulating wealth through agriculture. Silkworm cultivation occupies an important place in these publications owing to the active encouragement given by the Section of Silkworm Cultivation in the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry. We can recognise the extensive involvement of Suh Pyung Sook, who served as the Section Chief of Silkworm Cultivation in 1904, by examining introductions and prefaces of many books in this category. The examples of general books on agriculture are 'New Agricultural Administration' (농정신편), 'General Introduction on Agiculture' (농업대요), 'New Textbook on Agricuture' (신찬농업교과서), 'Pragmatic Agriculture' (실리농방신편), Of these, 'New Agricultural Administration' (농정신편) is evaluated as the first publication on modern agriculture. It was written in 1881, and the first edition was published was published in 1901 with the second edition following in 1905. Examples of the second category are; 'The regulation on utilizing uncultivated state owned land' (국유미간지리용법) legislated and declared with the intention of expanding cultivated area, 'Mining and Forestry Regulation' (광임법규), 'Forest Land Regulation' (임야법령) to administer mining and forestry. Books on commercial agriculture take up the highest proportion in the agricultural publication of this period. These cover silkworm cultivation, chicken farming, vegetables and fruits. The books introduce Western techniques with more scientific and rational approach especially on Silkworm cultivation and chichen farming which had become increasingly significant as commercial agriculture from the late Chosun Dynasty.