NUTRITIONAL EFFICIENCY OF SELECTED HYBRIDS AND A CROSS BREED OF SILK WORM, BOMBYX MORI L.

The double hybrid, (CSR 6X CSR 26) X (CSR 2 X CSR 27) and its reciprocal, (CSR 2 X CSR 27) X (CSR 6X CSR 26), bivoltine hybrid, CSR 2 x CSR 4 and cross breed, PM x CSR 2 were reared on the leaf of mulberry varieties V1, MR 2, and S 36 in three seasons viz., summer, monsoon and winter. The effect of varieties, season and instar on nutritional parameters such as consumption index (CI), Growth rate (GR), Efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), Efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD) into body matter and Coefficient of metabolism (CM) were studied. Irrespective of breeds, CI, ECI and ECD were higher on V1 during summer and monsoon. PM x CSR2 recorded highest CI, CR and AD. Double hybrid, (CSR 6 X CSR 26) X (CSR 2 X CSR 27) recorded highest ECI and ECI) during summer and monsoon and highest growth rate during monsoon. The ECI, ECI, ECD and AD were lowest in bivoltine hybrid, CSR2 x CSR4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]