STUDY ON THE OPTIMAL AGAR AGAR AND CORN STARCH CONTENTS IN SILKWORM BOMBYX MORI L. ARTIFICIAL DIET

Panomir Tzenov

Abstract: The study aimed to detect the possibilities of partly or fully substitution of the agar in the silkworm artificial diet by increasing the corn starch content. An artificial diet, developed by the author and collective and including 38 % mulberry leaf powder, 34 % defatted soybean meal, 14 % corn starch, 8 % agar agar and the rest up to 100 % - citric acid, ascorbic acid, microelements, vitamins, sitosterol, antibiotic and preservatives was used as control. Four experimental groups having different agar and corn starch contents have been formed. The experiments have been conducted three times using the widely adopted in the field Bulgarian F1 silkworm hybrid H1xKK x G2xV2. It was detected that the absence or decreased content of agar in combination with an increased content of corn starch lead to considerable drop of silkworm viability, silk shell weight and shell ratio while the fresh cocoon weight character values had not been influenced. It’s recommended the agar content in the silkworm artificial diet to be not less than 80 g/kg dry matter.

Keywords: agar; artificial diet; Bombyx mori L.; corn starch; silkworm

Date published: 2023-03-07