Vol. 11, Special Issue 8 (2022)

Author(s):
Sailaja B, Sudhakara Rao P, Vishaka GV, Khamar Taj, Rathore MS, Vijaya Kumari KM, Mishra RK, Sathyanarayana K and Chandrashekar Hegde

Abstract:
Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), pupae undergo diapause to escape unfavourable climatic conditions. During the termination of diapause stage, due to altered climatic conditions pupal mortality and erratic moth emergence is noticed in tasar seed sector. In the present study, just before diapause termination stage (about one month prior to the normal emergence period tasar) seed cocoons were exposed to photoperiod (16h Light: 8h Dark) at room temperature 25 °C with 65 ± 5% RH. Results indicated that, altered light regimes reduced the moth emergence period 27 days in DTV and 11days in DBV Seed cocoons than the control batch duration. It is clearly evident in treatment batches, moth emergence completed earlier than the control without affecting the moth’s health and subsequently the egg laying behaviour.