Supplementation of Honey from Different Bee Species and proteins source to Enhance the Silk Reeling Characters of Silkworm, Bombyx mori L.

The study was carried out to evaluate the impact of different concentrations of honey from various bee species and protein sources on the silk reeling characters of Bombyx mori L. The silkworm larvae were fed on the mulberry leaves treated with honey and protein sources from the third instar to the spinning stage. Among the treatments tested, stingless bee honey recorded significantly the highest silk filament weight (384.52 mg), silk filament length (1321.15 m), and non-broken filament length (398.92 m) over all other treatments. The same honey also drastically brought down the thickness of filament and renditta to desirable level of 2.50 and 6.33, respectively from 2.63 and 7.42 in the control. Among the various concentrations evaluated, it was proved from the results of present experiments that stingless bee honey at 5 per cent performed well in improving the silk reeling related characters of silkworm.