Assessment of Three Varieties of Morus indica L. on the Growth and Performance of a Bivoltine Breed of Bombyx mori L. in Nigeria

The effect of three varieties of Mulberry leaves (Morus indica L.: K2, S-36 and EFG) on growth and performance of a bivoltine breed of Silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) was evaluated in a Tropical rainforest belt of South-West Nigeria. At the end of the fifth instar, S-36 variety of Mulberry leaves significantly increased the larvae mean weight to 1.28g when compared with K2 (1.07grams) and EFG (0.93grams) (P<0.5). Though the three varieties did not show any significant difference (P<0.05) in terms of weight of wet cocoons ( K2 -1.83g, S-36 -1.95g and EFG -1.80g) , however S-36 significantly increased the filament length of cocoon spun by Bombyx mori when compared with others ( S-36 produced mean length of 824m, K2, 594m and EFG, 432m).The results revealed that the nutritive value of Mulberry leaves varied from each other. Except for the adult Bombyx mori all other results presented a significantly higher performance of the S-36 variety above K2 and EFG variety (P<0.05). The result showed that S-36 significantly supported the growth and productivity of Bombyx mori than K2 and EFG leaves. Keywords: Mulberry leaves, Bombyx mori, Instar, Cocoon