Allied Sectors and Occupations

Bamboo made house with thatched roof and mud-plastered wall is preferable for grainage.
Disinfect the grainage rooms and appliances prior to commencement of operation.
Wash the rooms and appliances with 5% bleaching powder solution before one day.
Dry the appliances in sun shine for 3-4 hours before one day.
Disinfect the rooms and appliances with a mixture of 2% formalin, 0.5-1% lime and 0.5% detergent solutions @ 1L/ sq.m after one day.

Immediately after the receipt of seed cocoons, spread them on trays in a single layer to facilitate good aeration.
Reject the seed cocoons which are melted, uzi infested, flimsy and not conforming to the characteristics of parent races.
Preserve only the healthy seed cocoons in trays for further processing.
Provide cross ventilation in the preservation room.
Maintain temperature at 25 ± 1˚C, relative humidity of 75 ± 5%, 16 hour light and 8 hour dark conditions in the cocoon preservation room.
Maintain complete darkness one day prior to emergence to avoid irregular emergence of moths.

This helps in determining the disease freeness of a batch and helps in minimizing the loss to grainage.
For early emergence of moths, 50-60 seed cocoons are taken from individual lots and placed into an artificial eclosion box.
Maintain the temperature at 32-33 0C with the help of thermostat. This accelerates the development of pupae and moth emerges early.
Examine the early emerged female moths of respective lots are under microscope to know the disease freeness of lots.

Keep the cocoon preservatio0n room dark before the expected day of emergence of moths.
In case of variation in development of male or female pupae, the development of male pupae can be arrested by preserving them at 5-7 0C and 75 + 5% relative humidity for 3-4 days.
Only healthy and active moths are taken for pairing.
After 1-2 hours of emergence, the male and female moths of respective combination are allowed for 3.5 to 4 hours of pairing.
At the time of depairing, the male and female moths are to be moved side way so that the moths are separated easily without causing injury to reproductive organs.
The mated female moths are taken in a separate container and induced for urination.
Moths are placed on egg sheet and covered with cellules and kept in semi dark condition for oviposition.
Under proper preservation (5-7 0C), male moths can be used for second pairing by giving 1-2 hours rest.
Throughout the process of pairing, depairing and oviposition, optimum temperature of 25 ± 1 0C and relative humidity of 75 ± 5% should be maintained.

Dip the egg sheets in 2% formalin for 10-15 minutes. This helps in removal of pathogens adhering to the egg shell and further prevents secondary contamination.
Wash the eggs in formalin solution. It helps in firm adherence of eggs to the sheet.

Maintain temperature of 25 ± 1˚C, relative humidity of 75 ± 5%, 16 hours of light and 8 hours darkness.
During the pinhead stage or before two days of hatching, maintain total darkness for uniform development of embryo and hatching of larvae at a time on a single day.

Directory of Sericulture Technology 2008, Karnataka State Sericulture Research and Development Institute, Bangalore- 5 60 062.

Eri Seed/ Egg Production

Select cocoons based on physical characteristics e.g. compactness, shape, size and number of cocoon per kg (not more than 350 cocoons/kg).

Wash the grainage room and appliances with 5% bleaching powder solution, 3 days before consignment of seed cocoons.
Same disinfection procedure should be adopted after completion of grainage.
In the event of pebrine incidence during grainage, fumigate with 5% formaldehyde solution under high humid condition with the appliances inside.
Open the room after 24 hours.

Transport the cocoons in plastic trays during early morning or in the evening hours to avoid direct exposure to sunlight.

Seed cocoons are stored in single layers @ 500 cocoons per tray (size 3ft x 2ft) arranged in racks.

Moth emergence occurs after 17-18 days of spinning in summer and 30 t0 35 days in winter.
Moth emergence takes place in the evening hours as well as in the morning hours.
Collect the emerged moths in moth cage approximately in the ratio of male :
female at 60 : 40. The paired moths are allowed to couple for 6 hrs.
Decouple the moths and allow the female moths to lay eggs on kharika/pouch.

Conduct microscopic examination of mother moths on 3rd day for basic and 0n 4th day for commercial seed following Fujiwara technique.

Collect all the disease free layings alongwith the kharika in a tray for harvesting. Transfer the harvested eggs to a piece of nylon net for washing.

Eri Silkworm Seed Production Centre, Azara, Guwahati