Performance of Newly Evolved Bivoltine Silkworm Hybrids of Bombyx mori with Reference to Hybrid Vigour

In the present study, hybrid vigour in terms of heterosis and over dominance of newly evolved bivoltine hybrids and their reciprocals raised from the promising newly evolved bivoltine breeds were calculated for the important parameters like pupation, cocoon yield, cocoon weight, shell weight, shell ratio, raw silk percentage, filament length and neatness. Through there was no significant difference among the hybrids for the characters pupation, cocoon yield and cocoon weight, the magnitude of heterosis and over dominance were varied significantly for these characters. However, significant differences were observed between new hybrids and control hybrid for the characters like cocoon shell weight, cocoon shell ratio, filament length and raw silk percentage. The results indicate that majority of new hybrids have shown higher heterosis and over dominance than control hybrid. The data also indicate that highest mean heterosis of all new hybrids was recorded for cocoon yield followed by filament length. Whereas highest mean over dominance was recorded for cocoon yield followed by cocoon weight. Negative mean heterosis and over dominance were recorded for the trait cocoon shell ratio. Based on the results, the importance of three hybrids viz., CSR2 ${\times}$ CSR4, CSR2 ${\times}$ CSR5 and CSR3 ${\times}$ CSR6 and their reciprocals (CSR4 ${\times}$ CSR2, CSR5 ${\times}$ CSR2 and CSR6 ${\times}$ CSR3) which exhibited significant heterosis and over dominance, for commercial exploitation was discussed.