The tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury, Andhra local ecorace is an exclusive race of Andhra Pradesh. It is on the verge of extinction due to difficulty of acclimatisation at breeding and rearing stages. As an attempt to protect this race, a method of total indoor rearing has been done. In this context, the estimation of free amino acids, excretory products- urea and uric acid were compared...

Study on immune proteins in domesticated and wild silkmoths Bombyx mori and Antheraea mylitta, respectively, led to identification of a new class of antimicrobial proteins. We designated them as lysozyme-like proteins (LLPs) owing to their partial similarity with lysozymes. However, lack of characteristic catalytic amino acid residues essential for muramidase activity in LLPs puts them function...

Background: Insect diapause is associated with physiological dormancy, extension of life span and an altered developmental programme. Reactive oxygen species, oxidative damaged products and antioxidants are being increasingly linked to such processes in insects. Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), has an impressive pupal diapause and exhibits a distinct ...

The tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta, is a semi-domesticated vanya silk-producing insect of high economic importance. To date, no molecular marker associated with cocoon and shell weights has been identified in this species. In this report, we identified a randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker and examined its inheritance, and also developed a stable diagnostic sequence-cha...

Antheraea mylitta produces tasar silk and is an endemic species of the Indian subcontinent. Populations of this species show a certain degree of phenotypic variability for which they are designated as ‘ecoraces’. Inorder to study the genetic variability in relation to the environment among Daba T.V and Andhra local the life history of two ecorace from hatching to egg laying stage and the cocoon...

In the present study, the total hydroperoxides, catalase, glutathione-s-transferase, and ascorbic acid contents were determined in different developmental stages of the non-diapause and the diapause generation of the tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). The results showed stage-specific significantly higher levels of total hydroperoxides, catalase, and as...

The present study demonstrates tissue-specific (hemolymph and fat body) and inter-voltine [bivoltine (BV) and trivoltine (TV)] differences in oxidatively damaged products, H2O2 content, and the relative level of antioxidant protection in the diapausing pupae of Antheraea mylitta. Results suggest that fat body (FB) of both the voltine groups has oxidative predominance, as evident from the high v...