Detailed Introduction to the Silkworm Variety Yuefeng No. 3

Approval number: Yue Shen Can 2006002

Breeding units: Guangdong Province Sericulture Technology Extension Center, Department of Sericulture Science, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University

Variety source: Wu/Xuan//28/32

Characteristics: A bivoltine four-way hybrid variety with polyvoltine bloodlines. It has the characteristics of a strong constitution, resistance to high temperature and high humidity, resistance to fluorine and air pollution, ease of rearing, high yield, excellent cocoon silk quality, and a high silkworm egg multiplication coefficient. Hatching is uniform and synchronized; the newly hatched larvae of the orthogonal cross are relatively quiet, while those of the reciprocal cross are more prone to wandering. During the young silkworm stage it shows clustering behavior and grows and develops quickly and uniformly; compared with Liangguang No. 2, the duration of each instar is similar, the large silkworms have a stouter body, are all-white silkworms, feed vigorously on mulberry during the peak feeding period, and consume a relatively large amount of mulberry; maturity is uniform and synchronized, and mature silkworms show a certain degree of negative phototaxis and clustering, so if the light in the mounting room is uneven or mounting is too dense, double cocoons are easily formed; the cocoon shape is long oval, uniform in size, with pure white cocoon color and medium shrinkage.

Yield performance: From 2004 to 2006 in Luoding, Maoming, Suixi and other places, in three consecutive years of provincial variety comparison trials, the cocoon yield per tray of silkworm eggs was 43.4 kg, an increase of 13.61% over the control variety Liangguang No. 2; the cocoon yield per 10,000 silkworms, cocoon shell weight per 10,000 silkworms, and silk yield per 10,000 silkworms increased by 10.72%, 14.28%, and 20.40% respectively compared with the control variety.

Key rearing techniques: (1) The young silkworms have relatively strong phototaxis and wandering behavior and grow and develop quickly, so attention should be paid to evening out and expanding the rearing space; use fully sealed or semi-sealed rearing to avoid starvation causing uneven development of the silkworms; (2) The large silkworms feed quickly and vigorously and consume a relatively large amount of mulberry, especially during the peak feeding period of the fifth instar, when the rearing bed should be thin; attention should be paid to adequate feeding of good mulberry for satiation.

Approval opinion of the Provincial Variety Approval Committee: Yuefeng No. 3 is a four-way hybrid first-generation variety. The silkworms hatch, molt, and mount uniformly and synchronously; the silkworm body is strong, the yield is high, the cocoon silk quality is excellent, it is easy to rear and easy to propagate, the molting and diapause traits are stable, and the comprehensive economic traits are excellent. It is suitable for year-round rearing in all sericulture areas of our province. It meets the crop variety approval standards of Guangdong Province and has been approved.