Studies on the biological traits of multivoltine and bivoltine races and their F₁ hybrids of mulberry silkworm

A line × tester experiment was carried out to assess and determine which silkworm parents and hybrids are suitable for three biological traits. During the study, two trials were conducted, and pooled data indicates that multivoltine parent BL₆₇ was most promising for traits viz., larval duration (19.94 days). Pure Mysore exhibited superior for moth emergence (92.17%) and BL₂₄ for pupal duration (10.33 days). The bivoltine parent CSR₅₀ showed promising results for larval duration (24.05 days) and moth emergence (88.17%), while GEN₂ for pupal duration (13.00 days). Among F₁ hybrids, the cross BL₆₇ × CSR₅₀ was a promising cross for moth emergence (97.67%), PM × CSR₅₀ for pupal duration (14.33 days) and BL₆₇ × CSR₁₆ for larval duration (20.14 days). No single parent and hybrid is better for all characters.