초록
Breeding programme was initiated during November, 1995 with the main objective to breed productive multivoltine breeds/ hybrids with suitable genetic constitution to suit the fluctuating tropical climate prevailed in India. Two multivoltine breeds viz., BL-24 and BL-27 selected were as breeding resource materials from the silkworm germplasm maintained at Central Sericul-tural Research and Training Institute, Mysore. By adopting hybridization, backcrossing inbreeding and selection, a new multivoltine breed namely BL-67. This breed spins light greenish yellow cocoons and cocoon shape is oval with medium to coarse grains. The evolved breed was crossed with five tropical bivoltine breeds viz., NB4D2, CSR2, CSR5, CSR18 and CSR101 to study the combining ability, and identified a superior hybrid, BL67 ${\times}$ CSR101, named as CAUVERY, The hybrid is characterized by high pupation rate (>95%), high shell weight (> 35 cg), high cocoon shell ratio (> 20%), longer filament length (> 900 m) and high neatness (93) with a renditta of 6.5 producing 2A-3A grade silk. The hybrid is selected for Race Autho-rization test of Central Silk Board.