Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat - 785013, Assam, (India).
*Address for Correspondence: B.G. Unni, Fax: 0376-3370011, E-mail: bgunnid@Sanchamet.in & bgunni@yahoo.com
1Department of Biochemistry, Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat, 785 006.
The food consumption and utilisation study conducted on the semi-domesticated muga silkworm, Antheraea assama by rearing it on one of the major host plants, Persea bombycina, revealed variation in values for relative growth rate (RGR), consumption index (CI), reference ratio (RR), efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), etc. depending on season, different instars of the same season and different days of the same instar. However, in pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons almost same pattern of variation was recorded. Considering difference in the values of production efficiency of cocoon shell (PECS)% between both the seasons, it can be indicated that, there exists seasonal effect on the leaf quality of the host plant and / or on metabolic rate of the larva of Antheraea assama.
