The artificial diet for the silkworm, Bombyx mori L., containing chlorella as a nutritive source I. Feeding behavior of newly hatched larvae to chlorella

Abstract

The heterotrophically mass-cultured chlorella was tested as a main nutritive component in an artificial diet for the silkworm. Mulberry leaf powder-cellulose powder-agar Belly diet was adopted as a basal diet, and the cellulose in this diet was replaced by chlorella in a test diet. Newly hatched larvae were reared on these diets for 24 hrs., and the number of excreted feces was counted. The results showed that the feces count on chlorella-containing diet was always lower than that on cellulose containing diet. This means that the chlorella has some factor which inhibit larval feeding. The inhibitory factor was partly removed by extracting chlorella with methanol. The crude protein fraction of the algae caused low feeding inhibition. The degree of feeding inhibition by the algae varied considerably between several hybrid strains. The larval feeding activity on the chlorella-containing diet was found to be comparable to that on the usual soybean containing one. Therefore, it may be possible to use chlorella as a protein source in the silkworm diet. © 1977, The Japanese Society of Sericultural Science. All rights reserved.