• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-34
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• 1974

These experiments pertain to various factors influencing the quantitative characters of cocoon crops in summer and early autumn seasons. Initially, in order to establish the possible ways of the silkworm rearing more than three times a year in Korea, the author attempted to get further information about the various factors affecting the cocoon crop in every silkworm rearing season. The trials were conducted eleven times a year at four places for three years. The field trial was conducted with 19 typical sericultural farmers who had been surveyed. At the same time the author statistically analyzed the various factors in close relation to tile cocoon crop in autumn season. The effect of guidance on 40 sericultural farmers was analyzed, comparing higher level farmers with lower level farmers ; and the author surveyed 758 non-guided farmers near the guided farmers during both spring and autumn seasons. In addition, another trial on the seasonal change of leaf quality was attempted with artificial diets prepared with leaves grown in each season. It was found that related factors to cocoon crops in summer and early autumn seasons appeared to be leaf quality, and temperature for young and grown larvae. A 2$^4$ factorial experiment was designed in summer season, and another design with one more level of varied temperature or hard leaf added to a 24 factorial experiment was conducted in early autumn. The experimental results can be summarized： 1. Study on the cocoon crops in the different rearing seasons 1) It was shown that earlier brushing of silkworm generally produced the most abundant cocoon crop in spring season, and earlier or later than the conventional brushing season, especially earlier brushing was unfavorable for the abundant cocoon crop in autumn season. 2) The cocoon crop was affected by the rearing season, and decreases in order of sire with spring, autumn, late autumn, summer and early autumn seasons. 3) It was Proved that ordinary rearing and branch rearing were possibles 4 times a year ; in the 1st, 3rd, 8th, and 10th brushing season. But the 11th brushing season was more favorable for the most abundant cocoon crop of branch rearing, instead of the 10th brushing season with ordinary rearing. 2. Study on the main factors affecting the cocoon crop in autumn season 1) Accumulated pathogens were a lethal factor leading to a bad cocoon crop through neglect of disinfection of rearing room and instruments. 2) Additional factors leading to a poor cocoon crop were unfavorable for rearing temperature and humidity, dense population, poor choice of moderately ripened leaf, and poor feeding techniques. However, it seemed that there was no relationship between the cocoon crop and management of farm. 3) The percentage of cocoon shell seemed to be mostly affected by leaf quality, and secondarily affected by the accumulation of pathogens. 3. Study on the effect of guidance on rearing techniques 1) The guided farms produced an average yearly yield of 29.0kg of cocoons, which varied from 32.3kg to 25.817g of cocoon yield per box in spring versus autumn, respectively. Those figures indicated an annual average increase of 26% of cocoon yield over yields of non-guided farmers. An increase of 20% of cocoon yield in spring and 35% of cocoon yield in autumn were responsible. 2) On guided farms 77.1 and 83.7% of total cocoon yields in the spring and autumn seasons, respectively, exceeded 3rd grade. This amounted to increases of 14.1 and 11.3% in cocoon yield and quality over those of non-guided farms. 3) The average annual cocoon yield on guided farms was 28.9kg per box, based on a range of 31.2kg to 26.9kg per box in spring and autumn seasons, respectively. This represented an 8% increase in cocoon yield on farms one year after guidance, as opposed to non-guided farms. This yield increase was due to 3 and 16% cocoon yield increases in spring and autumn crops. 4) Guidance had no effect on higher level farms, but was responsible for 19% of the increases in production on lower level farms. 4. Study on the seasonal change of leaf quality 1) In tests with grown larvae, leaves of tile spring crop incorporated in artificial diets produced the best cocoon crop; followed by leaves of the late autumn, summer, autumn, and early autumn crops. 2) The cocoon crop for young larvae as well as for grown larvae varied with the season of leaf used. 5. Study on factors affecting the cocoon crops in summer and early autumn A. Early autumn season 1) Survival rate and cocoon yield were significantly decreased at high rearing temperatures for young larvae 2) Survival rate, cocoon yield, and cocoon quality were adversely affected by high rearing temperatures for grown larvae. Therefore increases of cocoon quantity and improvement of cocoon quality are dependent on maintaining optimum temperatures. 3) Decreases in individual cocoon weight and longer larval periods resulted with feeding of soft leaf and hard leaf to young larvae, but the survival rate, cocoon yield and weight of cocoon shell were not influenced. 4) Cocoon yield and cocoon quality were influenced by feeding of hard leaf to grown larvae, but survival rate was not influenced by the feeding of soft leaf and hard leaf. 5) When grown larvae were inevitably raised at varied temperatures, application of varied temperature in the raising of both young and grown larvae was desirable. Further research concerning this matter must be considered. B. Summer season 1) Cocoon yield and single cocoon weight were decreased at high temperatures for young larvae and survival rate was also affected. 2) Cocoon yield, survival rate. and cocoon quality were considerably decreased at high rearing temperatures for grown larval stages.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.7-14
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• 1987

Extensive studies were undertaken to analyze the genetic basis of economically important quantitative characters in the silkworm by diallel crosses of four inbred lines differing widely in silk yielding ability. Some differences between the reciprocal corsses were detected in cocoon weight, cocoon shell weight, cocoon filament length and cocoon filament weight in case the parental lines were greatly differenent each other in silk yielding ability. The general combining ability (GCA) varied with the inbred lines and M242, a Chieese sexlimited larval marking variety showed high GCA value in the economic characters, such as cocoon yield, cocoon weight, cocoon filament length and weight, and raw silk percentage. The highest heterosis effect, about 13% to 14% was seen in cocoon and raw silk yield and it was low in cocoon reelability and raw silk percentage with less than 1%. It is advisable to improve highly heritable quantitative characters such as larval duration, cocoon shell weight, cocoon filament length and raw silk percentage by means of selection, and to select single crosses with high heterosis effect for cocoon weight and cocoon yield which show overdominance. Genetic correlation should be considered when more than two characters are targets for improvement and selecting high cocoon shell weight is effective to breed high silk yielding varieties. It is difficult to improve cocoon reelability because of low heritability (0.11) and its negative correlation with cocoon-silk quality.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2001

Data from an experiment involving six polyvoltine and three bivoltine silkworm breeds have been analysed to know the level of hybrid rigour and cocoon shape variation in Fl hybrids among silkworm breeds with lows medium and high cocoon weight. Results indicated significantly positive heterosis for several quantitative characters with maximum total heterosis over mid parent value in hybrids between low and medium followed by low and low, medium and medium, low and high and high and low cocoon-weighed breeds, respectively. Study on cocoon shape measurement revelled that among Fl hybrids, cocoons of the three combinations such as GNP ${\times}$ CSR2, GNP ${\times}$ J2 and PM ${\times}$ NB4 D2 were comparatively uniform in their cocoon shape. Importance of this study to know the level of heterosis and cocoon shape variability in different silkworm crosses hale been discussed.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 1994

In order to investigate the possibility of fine-size cocoon production by the use of imidazole compound, Trifumin, the cocoon and cocoon filament qualities, dietary efficiency and fibroin component were examined. cocoon size, cocoon weight and cocoon shell weight of trimolter were smaller than those of tetramolter. Cocoon shell weight of trimolter was 58% and 26% of that of tetramolter in the 3rd instar treated larvae and in the 4th instar treated larvae, respectively. Amount of cocoon shell produced per 1g dry matter ingested was 94% and 85% of that of tetramolter in the 3rd instar treated larvae and in the 4th instar larvae, respectively. The effects of Trifumin on the reeling tests were different according to the stage of the treatment. When Trifumin was treated at the 3rd instar larvae, reelability of cocoon filament, amount of cocoon filament, size of cocoon filament, reelability percentage and raw silk percentage of cocoon were 100%, 60%, 60%, 97% and 90%, respectively. When Trifumin was treated at the 4th imstar larvae, most of reelability tests were inferior to those of the 3rd instar treated larvae, but reelavility percentage was increased 13%. The Trifumin treatment did not affect the electrophoretic patterns of cocoon fibroin.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.196-200
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• 1999

The flat-ways spinned cocoon was prepared from the silkworm using flat and circular type cocooning frame. The spinning rate of the silkworm was 76.9% compared to the normal mounted silkworm. The arrangement of cocoon baves of the flat-ways spinned cocoon was more linear than the normal cocoon which is curved. To maintain the size-stability of the flat-ways spinned cocoon, degumming process was treated with enzymes. These flat-ways spinned cocoons could be used as padding materials for the thermal insulations and decoration uses for the traditional fan which the silkworms are mounted directly on the fan frame.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2015

Antheraea yamamai silkworm cocoon is considered as a natural biocompatible materials, but can not be used as medical resources due to its difficult processability. In this study, we examined the general characteristics including cocoon shell weight and structural and thermal properties of Antheraea yamamai silkworm cocoon. The cocoon shell weight and thickness of wild silkworm cocoon was 0.528 g and 0.424 mm, respectively. The cocoon has yellow-green color in outside cocoon but white in inner layer cocoon. Amino acid analysis showed that the main amino acid of Antheraea yamamai cocoon is alanine, glycine, serine, aspartic acid, tyrosine and arginine. X-ray diffractometry showed that strong diffraction peaks at $2{\theta}=16.8^{\circ}$, $20.4^{\circ}$, corresponded to ${\beta}$-sheet structure and sharp diffraction peaks at $2{\theta}=15.0^{\circ}$, $24.3^{\circ}$, $30.0^{\circ}$ due to the presence of calcium oxalate on cocoon surface. Antheraea yamamai cocoon was degraded at $370^{\circ}C$. These results might be used as basic information for development of non-textile materials using Anthereae yamamai silkworm cocoon.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 1997

Ultraviolet weavelength (UV) of 366 nm produced clearer fluorescent dolor than that of 254 nm for the inspection of silkworm cocoons. Fluorescent color of silkworm cocoons varied in color, appears no relationship with the natural color under the normal light. Uniformity of fluorescent color was improved by selection of blue or yellow line from wild types. Blue and yellow, located at the opposite poles on the color solid and L*a*b* color system, confirmed as pure standard of fluorescent color in the silkworm races for commercial white cocoons. the cocoons with blue fluorescence occupied as high as 1.7 to 8.6 times than those with yellow in the Japanese silkworm races. Fluorescence of silkworm cocoon was not affected by forced flow dry at 70$^{\circ}C$ for 6 hrs. While the Japanese races revealed no sexual difference in fluorescent color, sex-dependence of the color was common in the Chinese races for commercial white cocoon. The fluorescence of cocoon shell of Chinese races showed clear separation of blue of median color. Silkworm strain of Dc20 and Fc24 were sexualy segregated 98.8${\pm}$1.20%, 99.0${\pm}$1.00% by cocoon fluorescence, as that of 99.3${\pm}$0.44% by typical larval marking of sex-limited inheritance. Specific expression of cocoon fluorescence, applicable to breeding of simple discrimination of sex for Chinese races, inspected thoroughly on the surface and inner layer of cocoon shell.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.5
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• pp.57-61
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• 1965

This report was prepared to find how warious tussah silk worm diets effect for the worm nutrition, its cocoon and reelability, Meantime, it was attacked the reeling effect of newly developed tussah cocoon cooking chemical, Tussah-lite. The results obtained are as followings. 1. The chemical composition of various diets were almost even, but Quercus acutissima Carrathers was the best from the nutrition point of view. 2. It was found that the more Calcium Oxalate, the better cocoon was formed, but Calcium Oxalate in the cocoon layer was found as almost same amount in case of different diet was fed. 3. It was also found that the more tannin, the better cocoon was formed, but the cocoon reelability was found as almost same in case of different diet was fed. 4. The cocoon reeling effect of newly developed chemical, Tussah-lite, showed 6∼7% silk yield from the tussah cocoon.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2021

In the present study, the effect of heat treatment on the crystallinity of the outside of silkworm cocoon in nine different silkworm varieties was studied using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Additionally, the morphological structure and moisture regain of the cocoon were examined. The silkworm cocoon showed different colors and external features depending on the silkworm variety. Moreover, the thickness of the filament (15.3-27.6 ㎛) and moisture regain of the cocoon (9.0%-11.0%) were quite different depending on the silkworm variety. The crystallinity index of the cocoon outside varied from 52.1% to 56.1%, depending on the silkworm variety. J300 and MO42 showed the highest (56.1%) and the lowest (52.1%) crystallinity index, respectively, indicating that the microstructure of sericin of the outside of the cocoon was affected by the silkworm variety. Regardless of silkworm variety, their crystallinity indexes decreased from 52.1%-56.1% to 49.9%-43.6% depending on the silkworm variety by the heat treatment at 250 ℃. Interestingly, the crystallinity degree decrease was somewhat different depending on the silkworm variety, implying that the cocoon sericin microstructure is strongly influenced by the silkworm variety.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.9
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• pp.35-38
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• 1969

This study was carried ont to investigate the effect of feeding amount on the metric characters of silkworm at each day of 5 th instar. The results obtained from the study are summarized as follows: 1. The increased amount of feeding did not affect on the metric characters except the character, number of cocoon per litre, by each day of 5 th instar. 2. The decreased amount of feeding did affect the weight of cocoon, weight of cocoon layer and did not affect the pupation, best cocoon rate, cocoon layer rate and number of cocoon per litre by each day of 5 th instar. Namely, the weight of cocoon or weight of cocoon layer was decreased by 12 to 17 per cent in decreasing amount of feeding through 5 th instar. Weight of cocoon or cocoon layer decreased by 5 per cent in the decreasing amount of feeding at just 7 th day of 5 th instar.