Abstract
Three newly authorized bivoltine silkworm hybrids namely, $CSR2{\times}CSR4$ (productive single hybrid), $(CSR6{\times}CSR26){\times}(CSR2{\times}CSR27)$ (productive double hybrid) and $CSR18{\times}CSR19$ (robust single hybrid) were chosen for the present study. These hybrids were subjected to different temperature and humidity treatments i.e., $25{\pm}$1^{\circ}C and RH $65{\pm}5%$ (control), $30{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, with combinations of low relative humidity (RH $65{\pm}5%$) and high RH ($85{\pm}5%$) at different stages during rearing and spinning of silkworm larvae. The larvae of after 3rd moult were subjected to different thermal and humidity stress till the assessment of cocoon traits. The comparative rearing and reeling performance clearly indicated that the deleterious effect of high temperature and high RH was more pronounced for the majority of traits such as cocoon uniformity, cocoon weight, shell weight, shell percentage, reelability, filament length, raw silk percentage raw silk recovery denier and waste percentage on silk weight than other temperature and RH treatments and this effect was almost similar for all three silkworm hybrids studied. The present investigation clearly indicate that the deleterious effect of high temperature and high RH was more pronounced on rearing and spinning of silkworm larvae than other temperature and RH treatments and similar effect was noticed for all the three silkworm hybrids studied. The cocoon characters can be improved by providing ideal environmental conditions even during spinning stage of larvae affected with high temperature and RH. The study also suggest that high temperature and low humidity has greater effect during rearing stage than spinning stage.