ABSTRACT Tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Daba TV), a wild tropical sericigenous insect, reared in outdoor conditions is facing pest and predator problems that lead to extremely low cocoon yield. In order to overcome this problem, a novel method of indoor rearing has been conducted. Tasar cocoons are very hard and compact in nature, producing long and lustrous silk. In the present study, the cocoon parameters were studied from the crops raised by seeds obtained from outdoor and total indoor reared moths. A comparative study is made on the cocoon parameters viz., length, width, shell weight, shell thickness, shell ratio, cocoons per kg and Effective Rate of Rearing (ERR). Though there are several ecoraces of tasar silkworm like Daba, Sukinda and Jata, which have certain phenotypic variations and have been semi-domesticated, i.e., upto 3rd instar, in the present study the rearing of tasar ecorace Daba TV has been undertaken in indoor conditions from hatching to spinning stage and has been successful in obtaining three crops per year. The observations on cocoon parameters have shown a considerable improvement in the cocoon length, width, thickness and shell ratio in the crop reared by indoor seed source. However, a slight decrease in ERR was observed which may be due to fluctuations in natural environmental conditions, that contribute to better performance of the cocoons.
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