The artificial diet for the silkworm, Bombyx mori L., containing chlorella as a nutritive source II. Composition of diet and rearing experiment

Abstract

Rearing experiments of silkworm larvae on an artificial diet containing chlorella as a nutrient was carried out. When the algae content in the diet was between 40 and 70%, larval growth rate and cocoon production were better as compared with the cases where usual soybean-containing diets were used. The optimum content was nearly 50%. Therefore, 50% was adopted as a standard algal content in this work. It was suggested that chlorella contained some growth-promoting factor for silkworm larvae in addition to protein and carbohydrate, because the added algae could not be replaced by casein-starch mixture. The favorable rearing temperature on the standard chlorella diet was 28 to 30°C. About 14,000 larvae were reared on the standard diet through the whole larval period. After 27 days rearing, 83% of larvae produced reelable cocoons (mean weight 1.52g). Reeling test of the cocoons showed that raw silk percentage was 16.85%, length of filament was 923 m, and reelability percentage was 62%. © 1978, The Japanese Society of Sericultural Science. All rights reserved.