• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 1998

Two types of sperm, apyrene and eupyrene, are identified in A. mylitta. The sperm in the adult moth are motionless in seminal vesicles. At the time of ejaculation they received a secretion from male ejaculatory duct that renders them motile. The dissociation of eupyrene bundles, eupyrene sperm motility and the sequence of events of sperm migration in both sexes are described in the present paper.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2007

Tropical tasar silkmoth Antheraea mylilta D. is an economically important insect. The wild nature and above all unsynchronized emergence of moths lead to impairment in reproductive activity. The mating in moths is low (64%-70%), leaving about 30-36% of potential females unused for seed (= egg) production. Delay in mating adversely affects the reproductive performance such as mating behaviour, fecundity and fertility. Females are more severely affected by mating delay than males. Therefore, a study was under taken to develop a method to overcome the problem so that the production of layings can be increased to meet the ever increasing demand. It was revealed from the study that out of 16 possible age combinations (from the age groups of day 0 to day 3), female and male of day 0 (4-8 hours old) excel in their reproductive performance than others (with 94.4% mating success, 284 fecundity and 91.5% hatching). Reproductive performance declined significantly even if one of the parents was older. When either of the mating pair was 1 day old, the mating declined by 28%; fecundity by 32.8%; and hatching by 40.8%. The insemination of eupyrene sperm was declined by 35.2% when both the parents are 1 day old. Mating duration of 8 hours resulted in insemination of $8.3{\times}10^5$ eupyrene sperms, which was declined by 31.6%, 48% and 55% upon lowering of mating duration to 6 hr, 4 hr and 2 hr were maintained respectively.