Effect of mulberry varieties on commercial characters of bivoltine silkworm, Bombyx mori L.

Abstract

The investigation was carried out to evaluate the nine mulberry varieties viz., Tr-8, Tr-10, V-1, C-776, China white, S-54, S-146, NS-2 and Sujanpur to find out the varietal difference on the growth and development of bivoltine silkworm hybrid CSR2 × CSR4 for commercial character expression. Mulberry variety China white was treated as control and the performance of selected mulberry varieties was compared with the control. Observations were made on twelve economically important traits of each stage viz., larval (larval weight and larval survival percentage), cocoon (cocoon yield per 10,000 larvae (by weight and by number), single cocoon weight, single shell weight and shell ratio percentage) and post cocoon (total filament length, non-breakable filament length and denier) and was analyzed both individually and cumulatively. The data was analyzed using Evaluation index (E.I.) method. Seven mulberry varieties recorded mean evaluation index (E.I.) values of >50 ranging from 50.01 to 60.29, whereas, control (Sujanpur) scored E.I. value of 35.10 only. Three mulberry varieties, S-146 (60.29), Tr-8 (52.42) and Tr-10 (52.17) recorded average E.I. value >52 for all the characters under sub-tropical conditions.