Economic characters of muga silkworm cocoons influenced by regions and commercial seasons

Abstract

Muga cocoons were procured from Jorhat, Kamrup and Lakhimpur districts in spring and autumn season. The objective was to determine the impact of three regions and commercial seasons on cocoon characters in terms of cocoon size, cocoon weight, pupal weight, shell weight and shell ratio. The experiment was laid out in completely randomised design with three replications. The impact of three regions and two seasons was found to be significant on cocoon parameters. Large sized cocoons were obtained from Kamrup district followed by Lakhimpur and Jorhat in autumn season compared to those obtained in spring season. Cocoon weight, shell weight, pupal weight and shell ratio percentage (5.73g, 0.51g, 5.19g and 8.74% respectively) were found to be significantly higher in Kamrup as compared to Lakhimpur (5.4g, 0.46g, 4.94g and 8.43% respectively) while lowest was recorded in Jorhat district (5.27g, 0.43g, 4.83g and 8.20% respectively) irrespective of the seasons. Considering the seasons, cocoons obtained from autumn were superior in terms of cocoon characters (5.66g cocoon weight, 0.49g shell weight, 5.16g pupal weight and 8.63% shell ratio) than those of spring season. Kamrup district and autumn season have turned out to be the best region and best season clearly indicating that region and season influences the cocoon characters of muga silkworm.