Mulberry cultivar and plant developmental phase interaction on the productive productive performance of silkworm (Bombyx mori L.)

Abstract

The experiment was carried out at the Galia (state of São Paulo, Brazil) Research and Development Station, a unit of the Paulista Agribusiness Agency, during the Autumn of 2005, viewing to evaluate how mulberry cultivars (IZ 56/4, IZ 40, IZ 0/4 and Korin) and vegetative phases of plant development (7, 0, and 3 weeks) interacted on silkworm production. A completely random design, arranged according to a 3X4 factorial, with 5 replications, was employed. Korin supplanted IZ 0/4 and IZ 40 cultivars as to cocoon weight whereas as to chrysalis weight it supplanted IZ 0/4. Plant stage of development caused no significant effect on the silkworm performance as to cocoon weight, chrysalis weight, silk amount, number of cocoons per kilogram of sample, percentage of formed cocoons, and percentage of rejected cocoons . The largest cocoon shell weight resulted when the caterpillars were fed with 0 to 3 week branches of the IZ 56/4 cultivar and 0 week branches from the Korin cultivar. When 3 week branches of both IZ 56/4 and IZ 40 were fed to the caterpillars it was observed that a higher number of branches per caterpillar was necessary. The same result was observed when 0 week branches of the IZ 0/4 and Korin cultivars were used. Additional keywords: cocoon; cocoon shell; productive performance; caterpillar.