STUDIES ON THE IMPACT OF TENDER, MIDDLE AND MATURE LEAVES ON THE MANDIBLE SIZE AND ECONOMIC TRAITS OF BOMBYX MORI L.
Main Article Content
Abstract
Silkworm, BombyxmoriL. is an important insect in sericulture industry which belongs to the order
Lepidoptera. The mouth parts of Lepidopteran belong to one of the best studied feeding organs of flowervisiting insects, in terms of anatomy, functional morphology, and evolutionary biology. It has been suggested
that the body size of herbivorous insects varies in response to the leaf quality of host plants to successfully
feed on their specific hosts. Mulberry (Morus alba) is the sole host plant for silkworm and therefore forms the
basic material for silkworm growth since it gets its necessary nutrients from the plant. Insect mouthparts are
varied, based on their food habits. In this study, size of mandibles (fifth instar) and economic parameters of
silkworm reared on different stages (Tender leaves, middle leaves and mature leaves) of mulberry leaves were
investigated in the laboratory.In this larval period, the mandible length (1.11±0.09 mm) and width
(0.95±0.077 mm) was high in the 17th and 19th old day larvae when fed with tender leaves. It also reflects in
the economic traits of B.mori. cocoon characteristics such as cocoon weight (1120±55.41 mg), shell weight
(200±18.66 mg) and shell ratio (17.85±1.01 %) were increased significantly in the tender leaves treated
groups.