Studies on the technology of artifical diet rearing for parental strains of the silkworm, 4: The relationship between the water content of artificial diets for the fifth larval instar and egg laying results
2005
Tanaka, Y.(Institute of Sericulture, Ami, Ibaraki (Japan))
Silkworms eat most of their diet during the final larval instar. Hence, the quality of the artificial diet for the final instar is very important to ensure good egg laying. Rearing experiments were carried out two times to find out the optimum water content of the artificial diet for egg laying. A Japanese variety "T" was used for the experiments. The water percentages of the diets examined at the fifth larval instar were 70, 72.5, 75, 77.5, and 80%. These percentages were the values calculated from the weights of added water and diet powder. In both experiments, the water content of 75% gave the best egg laying results. The contents 72.5 and 77.5% showed the second or the third best result. The actual water contents of the source artificial diet powder and cooked diets were measured by the drying method. The powder contained water of about 8% of its weight. The actual amounts of the cooked diets were, therefore, about 2% higher than the calculated values.
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