EFFECTS OF FEEDING MULBERRY (MORUS SP) LEAVES SUPPLEMENTED WITH DIFFERENT NUTRIENTS TO SILKWORM (BOMBYX-MORI L)

The growth of silkworm larvae improved significantly on feeding them m ulberry leaves supplemented with different nutrients, The total protei n content of silk gland increased, while the water, total lipid and ca rbohydrate contents decreased. The larval weight, silk gland weight an d total protein in silk gland were found to be highest for treatment T S8 (soymilk + sugar + vitamins + potassium iodide salt), followed by T S7 (glycine + alanine + sugar + vitamins + potassium iodide salt) and TS9 (milk powder + sugar + vitamins + potassium iodide salt) treatment s. The highest values of single-cocoon weight, single-shell weight and filament length pere observed for treatment TS8 (1.34 g, 0.26 g and 7 99.42 m/cocoon, respectively), whereas cocoon yield was found to be hi ghest for treatment TS7 (110.17 g/100 larvae). No significant differen ce was observed between the treatments TS7, TS8 and TS9, their influen ce on silk gland and cocoon characteristics being more or less similar . The cocoon yield/100 larvae was increased by 20.61%, 20.38% and 19.0 6% in treatments TS7, TS8 and TS9, respectively, over the control trea tment.