Effect of light intensity on "spinning ecology" of silkworm, Bombyx mori l. and its cocoon reeling parameters Raju Ch. Satyanarayana1, Venkataramana P., Das B. Narasimha Murthy2, Kant Mrinal3 1Research Extension Centre Central Silk Board, Vikarabad-501 101, Andhra Pradesh, India 2Regional Sericultural Research Station, Anantapur-515 001, Andhra Pradesh, India 3Directorate of Sericulture, Government of West BengalKolkata, West Bengal, India Online published on 19 March, 2018. Abstract A preliminary survey was conducted in K. R. Nagar (irrigated area) and Chamarajanagar (rainfed area) districts, which are traditional sericultural areas, in nature, in Karnataka state, India. The survey analysis revealed the facts that most of all the sericulturists of both the areas kept the mountages (chandrikaes) with spinning larvae in open places, outside (exposing to sun light) the rearing houses and then shifted back into their houses and set them in available places. It also revealed that the most of the rearers did not have suitable and adequate space to provide suitable spinning environment during spinning viz., proper lighting, correct orientation of mountages and required air current, resulting in loss of cocoon crops. This prompted us to conduct an experiment on spinning ecology of silkworm, B. mori as influenced by light intensity with special reference to behaviour of spinning larvae (orientation on the chandrikacs) and cocoon quality during three seasons viz., winter (November), summer (March) and rainy (June). The study consisted of six treatments with six different light intensities provided with different sources of light. For each treatment 200 matured (spinning) larvae were randomly selected and replicated thrice. Data on duration of spinning, survival percentage of spinning 1 rvae on mountages, good cocoon percentage, weights of single cocoon, single shell, single shell ratio, filament length, filament size, renditta and reelability aspects were recorded. Among six treatments, the treatment-6 (T6: indoor mounting, dim light with 70 lux, 23.5+l°C and 75+5% RH) was found to be highly economic and the best in improving the characters of spinning larvae and cocoons in all three seasons studied. Hence, it is suggested that this technology can be adopted by all the sericulturists of different sericultural states in India in all three seasons for belter harvest of cocoon crop suitable for reelability. Top Keywords Bombyx mori L, Cocoon quality, Light intensity, Reelability, Seasons, Spinning ecology. Top |