• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.19-24
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• 2005

Nutrition is very essential for growth, development and reproduction. The quantitative impetus of nutritional factor on adult characters and reproductive fitness was studied in Antheraea mylitta by providing fresh leaves of Terminalia tomentosa for 1 to 4 times a day to $5^{th}$ instar larvae. All the characters have improved on giving fresh diet more times over the single diet. The adult weight has strong effect on the reproductive potential i.e., female pupa and moth weight, survivability, pupation rate, emergence percentage, fecundity, fertility, egg weight and hatched out larval weight. The improvement recorded to the tune of $70\%,\;77.1\%,\;115.4\%,\;36.7\%,\;45.9\%\;and\;218.3\%$ in larval weight gain, survivability, pupation rate, female pupa weight, moth weight and fecundity respectively when fresh diets were provided 4 times a day against single diet. The adult emergence percentage has increased from $66.4\%\;to\;96.2\%$ and fertility rose from $52.2\%\;to\;93.6\%$. The weight of eggs and the larvae hatched out of it also found to be significantly higher in 4 diets a day condition. The study revealed that optimization of fresh diet frequency should be maintained to obtain higher egg production and fertility in order to get vigorous larvae to continue the generation.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.169-172
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• 2008

Indian tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta D is reported to have forty four ecoraces by way of their adoption to different topographical and vegetational conditions. Of late, another ecorace 'JATA' - univoltine under in-situ condition has been explored which is localized in Thakurmunda area of the foot hills of Simlipal biosphere (Mayurbhanj district) of Orissa, India. The ecorace 'Jata' exhibits superior economic characters over widely commercialized ecoraces of Daba and Sukinda. The cocoon production of localized 'Jata' ecorace is depleting day by day in in-situ condition. In the present study, efforts were made to stabilize the ecorace 'Jata' under ex-situ condition at Ranchi (Jharkhand), where the 'Jata' ecorace silkworms were reared on Terminalia tomentosa for four successive generations during 2006 and 2007 and the cocoons were preserved in grainage house under prevailing climatic conditions. The results indicated change in voltinism behaviour of the 'Jata' ecorace from univoltine to bivoltine. The rearing performance and grainage efficiencies indicate the tendency of 'Jata' ecorace towards acclimatization and stabilization under Ranchi climatic conditions. The 'Jata' ecorace manifests the prospects for acclimatization, stabilization and commercial exploitation.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

The wild silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a polyphagous silk producing insect that feeds on Terminalia arjuna, T. tomentosa and Shorea robusta and is distributed in the forest belts in different states of India. Phenotypically distinct populations of the A. mylitta are called "eco-race" or "ecotypes". Genetic improvement of this wild silkworm has not progressed much due to lack of adequate information on the factors that control the expression of most of the economically important traits. Considering the amazing technological advances taking place in molecular biology, it is envisaged that it is now possible to take greater control on these intractable traits if a combination of genetic, molecular and bioinformatics tools are used. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping is one such approach that has extensively been used in both animal and plant system to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for a number of economically important traits. LD mapping has a number of advantages over conventional biparental linkage mapping. Therefore, LD mapping is considered more efficient for gene discovery to meet the challenge of connecting sequence diversity with heritable phenotypic differences. However, care must be taken to avoid detection of spurious associations which may occur due to population structure and variety interrelationships. In this review, we discuss how LD mapping is suitable for the dissection of complex traits in wild silkworms (Antheraea mylitta).

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.97-101
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• 2006

The efficacy of wood ash from Terminalia arjuna (arjun) and T. tomentosa (asan) has been tested against virosis of tasar silkworm, Antheraea. mylitta D. The Polyhedral Occlusion Bodies (POBs) of Cytoplasmic Polyhedrosis Virus of A. mylitta (AmCPV) were exposed to the aqueous solution (0.5 to 4%) of wood ash for 5 to 30 minutes. The treated suspension of POBs was orally inoculated once to tasar silkworm larvae after 24 hours of $1^{st}$ moult, and larvae reared in indoor on arjun leaves till spinning. The application of aqueous solution of wood ash has established its potential as antiviral agent against cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus. Two percent aqueous solution of wood ash from arjun and asan dissolved the Polyhedral Occlusion Bodies (POBs) of cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus of tasar silkworm and inactivated the virions within a short period of 20 to 30 minutes. In vivo efficacy of aqueous solution of wood ash resulted in reduction of larval mortality due to virosis. The mortality was reduced to $2.56{\pm}0.21\;and\;3.03{\pm}0.32%$ when treatment of 2.0% solution of wood ash of arjun and asan respectively were applied for 20 minutes, compared to inoculated control $(92.18{\pm}7.52%)$. No mortality was recorded when treatment of 2.5% solution of wood ash of arjun and asan were applied for 10 minutes or more.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.243-264
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• 2013

Antheraea mylitta Drury is a commercial silk producing forest insect in India and Xanthopimpla pedator Fabricius is its larval-pupal endoparasitoid, which causes pupal mortality that affects seed production. Effects of host plants, rearing season and their interactions on parasitic behaviour of X. pedator were studied here, as influence of these factors on biological success of X. pedator is not known. Seven forest tree species were tested as food plants for A. mylitta, and rate of pupal parasitization in both the rearing seasons were recorded and analysed. Results showed that rearing season and host plants significantly affected the rate of pupal parasitization in both the sexes. Pupal mortality was found significantly higher (14.52%) in second rearing season than the first (2.89%). Likewise, host plants and rearing seasons significantly affected length, diameter, and shell thickness of cocoons in both sexes. Out of all infested pupae, 85.59% were found male, which indicated that X. pedator chooses male spinning larva of A. mylitta for oviposition, but we could not answer satisfactorily the why and how aspect of this sex specific parasitic behaviour of X. pedator. Multiple regression analysis indicated that length and shell thickness of male cocoons are potential predictors for pupal parasitization rate of X. pedator. Based on highest cocoon productivity and lowest pupal mortality, Terminalia alata, T. tomentosa, and T. arjuna were found to be the most suitable host plants for forest based commercial rearing of A. mylitta in tropical forest areas of Uttarakhand state, where it has never been reared earlier. Sex and season specific interaction of X. pedator with its larval-pupal host, A. mylitta is a novel entomological study to find out explanations for some of the unresolved research questions on parasitic behaviour of X. predator that opens a new area for specialised study on male specific parasitization in Ichneumonidae.