Production of Colored Cocoons by Oral Feeding of Synthetic Dyes Mavilashaw V.P*, Krishnamoorthy S.V., Mahalingam C.A.1 Department of Sericulture, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Mettupalayam, 641301, India 1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641003, Tamil nadu *email: mvsn123@gmail.com
Online published on 23 December, 2016. Abstract Mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori bivoltine double hybrid, DH1 {(CSR 6 × CSR 26) × (CSR 2 × CSR 27)} larvae were fed with dye-sprayed V1 mulberry leaves from the third day until they started spinning the cocoons. Silkworm fed food colours did not show any colour difference in cocoon. Acid dyes produced coloured cocoons with no visible difference in terms of food consumption or growth. The silkworms continued to grow normally in size without any differences in mortality rate with 3% dye uptake. The treatment Yellow 2G (3%) gave pure yellow cocoons and also recorded higher cocoon weight, shell weight, shell ratio, filament length, filament weight (2.0 g, 0.39 g, 19.87%, 999.75 m, 0.31 g, respectively) and this was on par with the untreated control (2.02 g, 0.40 g, 20.0%, 1010.00 m, 0.33 g, respectively). Red B and Brilliant blue dyes also produce good cocoons and filaments. There was no mortality in any treatment. Top Keywords Production of colored cocoons Oral Feeding, Synthetic Dyes. Top |