Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a polyphagous silk producing forest silkworm of commercial importance in India. Forest dependent people rear its larvae on different forestry host plants twice or thrice in a year for small household income. Larvae of A. mylitta feeds on many forest tree species, but always show a great degree of selectivity as a function of its behavioural responses to physical structure and chemical features of the host plants. Cocoon crop of A. mylitta is influenced by heterogeneity of tasar food plants and climatic conditions of the habitat. The role of host plants, temperature, humidity, rainfall, photoperiod and climatic variables on the growth and development of insects have clearly been demonstrated. This article entails an in-depth analysis on ecological and nutritional aspects of A. mylitta, which may provide selective information to researcher and forest managers, who are particularly associated with livelihood improvement of the poor people in forested area through location specific forest insect industry. In nature, A. mylitta has opted forty-five forest tree species as primary, secondary and tertiary food plants (Srivastav and Thangavelu, 2005) and have built up sixty-four different forms of ecological populations called ecoraces (Rao et al., 2003). The polyphagous nature of the tasar silkworm is a boon for many rural tribal in central The knowledge regarding insect-host plant relationship has highlighted the food preference by insects with regard to its nutritional value. Long back, Hiratsuka (1920) carried out a comprehensive quantitative study on digestion and utilization of Bombyx mori on mulberry leaf. Thereafter, Evans and Goodliffe (1939) worked on utilization of food by insects. Earlier studies on utilization of food by insects were not clearly described because several indices were used to report more or less the same measurement in different names (Hopkins, 1912;Evans and Goodliffe, 1939; Crowell, 1941;Smith, 1959;Mathur, 1967;Saxena, 1969). Study of the effects of host plants on the biology of insects is important in understanding the host suitability under different environmental condition (Xue et al., 2009). First, Thangavelu (1992 emphasised the need for conservation of wild sericigenous insects in Himalayan states of India. He highlighted the importance of systematic research on various aspects of non-mulberry silks, because studies on the host plant interaction of sericigenous insects are necessary for better management and development of the sericulture industry (Sinha et al., 2000). Siddiqui et al. (2006) stressed that conservation of A. mylitta in different pockets of forest under different geographical and climatic area is necessary and some of the commercial ecoraces of A. mylitta viz., Raily, Modal, Bhandara, Sukinda, Daba and Andhra local are being maintained in different forest areas of central India; but it is lacking in Uttarakhand. As suggested by many sericulturists, the specific climatic and geographical pockets...

In India, forest based insect enterprises has never been linked up with any forest management activity, either as a forest conservation strategy or to reduce the poverty in forested area.

Keywords:Forest silkworm, seasonal influence, host-parasitoid interaction, host-plant influence, sex-specific parasitization, biometric parameters of cocoon Antheraea mylitta Drury is a commercial silk producing forest insect in India and Xanthopimpla pedator Fabricius is its larval-pupal endoparasitoid, which causes pupal mortality that affects seed production. Effects of host plants, rearing season and their interactions on parasitic behaviour of X. pedator were studied here, as influence of these factors on biological success of X. pedator is not known. Seven forest tree species were tested as food plants for A. mylitta, and rate of pupal parasitization in both the rearing seasons were recorded and analysed. Results showed that rearing season and host plants significantly affected the rate of pupal parasitization in both the sexes. Pupal mortality was found significantly higher (14.52%) in second rearing season than the first (2.89%). Likewise, host plants and rearing seasons significantly affected length, diameter, and shell thickness of cocoons in both sexes. Out of all infested pupae, 85.59% were found male, which indicated that X. pedator chooses male spinning larva of A. mylitta for oviposition, but we could not answer satisfactorily the why and how aspect of this sex specific parasitic behaviour of X. pedator. Multiple regression analysis indicated that length and shell thickness of male cocoons are potential predictors for pupal parasitization rate of X. pedator. Based on highest cocoon productivity and lowest pupal mortality, Terminalia alata, T. tomentosa, and T. arjuna were found to be the most suitable host plants for forest based commercial rearing of A. mylitta in tropical forest areas of Uttarakhand state, where it has never been reared earlier. Sex and season specific interaction of X. pedator with its larval-pupal host, A. mylitta is a novel entomological study to find out explanations for some of the unresolved research questions on parasitic behaviour of X. predator that opens a new area for specialised study on male specific parasitization in Ichneumonidae. pedator is an idiobiont (such a parasitoid, which prevents further development of its host) solitary larval-pupal endoparasitoid (egg is laid in the host larva, but adult parasitoid does not emerge until host pupates) of A. mylitta. Xanthopimpla Saussure 1892 is one of the largest genera of Ichneumonidae and the species of the genus are endoparasitoids

Keywords:Tropical forests, forest dependent people, forest based livelihood opportunity, vanya sericulture, poverty alleviation, socioeconomic development of Uttarakhand Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a commercial silk producing forest insect of India, but it has never been experimented in Uttarakhand state in spite of the huge availability of its forestry host plants. This is the first study on A. mylitta in Uttarakhand. The goal of this study is to introduce forest based commercial rearing of A. mylitta, in tropical forest areas of Uttarakhand to reduce poverty among forest dependent people. In current study, we assessed the effect of seven forest tree species, rearing seasons, and their interactions on cocoon productivity of Daba (bivoltine) ecorace of A. mylitta in the New Forest of FRI, Dehra Dun during 2012 and 2013 and collected the data that was analysed by two-way completely randomized block factorial design. Post HOC Tukey's HSD test was carried out to compare the homogeneous pairs of means. We also carried out Evaluation Index analysis to rank the tested forestry host plants for better growth and development of A. mylitta under the climatic condition of Uttarakhand. Analysis of variance indicated that cocoon yield of A. mylitta differed significantly between rearing seasons (DF=1, F=88.24, p<0.05) and host plants (DF 6, F= 368.63, p<0.05); however, their interactions were found insignificant (DF=6, F=0.99, p>0.05). In first rearing season of July-August, there was higher cocoon yield than the second season of SeptemberNovember. Results indicated that Terminalia alata fed larvae showed significantly higher cocoon yield (164.11 cocoons/300 larvae); followed by, T. tomentosa (148.89 cocoons), T. arjuna (140.00 cocoons) and Lagerstroemia speciosa (129.47 cocoons) fed larvae. Whereas, Lagerstroemia tomentosa fed larvae that was used by the first time in India, showed lowest cocoon yield (48.81 cocoons), followed by T. chebula (72.53 cocoons) fed larvae. Cocoon yield of T. tomentosa and T. arjuna fed larvae of A. mylitta did not differ significantly with each other. Materials and Methods Out door rearing of A. mylitta on seven forestry host plantsWe investigated the effect of seven forestry host plants

Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta is a commercial forest silkworm in India that produces tasar silk, but never experimented in Uttarakhand, a Himalayan state of India. A. mylitta express divergent phenotypic characters under different ecological conditions; so, we studied the effect of seven forest tree species in two rearing seasons on variability in silk gland weight of Daba (bivoltine) ecorace of A. mylitta at Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand during 2012 and 2013. We used two-way completely randomized block factorial design and Post HOC Tukey's HSD test to analyse the collected data and there after carried out multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that silk gland weight differed significantly between rearing seasons (DF=1, F=2333.98, p<0.05), host plants (DF 6, F= 1516.25, p<0.05) and their interactions (DF=6, F=7.10, p<0.05). Higher silk gland weight was found in second rearing season than the first on all the host tree species. Terminalia alata fed A. mylitta larvae showed the highest silk gland weight of 8.03 and 9.47 g in first and second rearing seasons, followed by T. tomentosa (7.19 & 9.01g), T. arjuna (6.8 & 8.08 g) and L. speciosa (6.57 & 7.83 g) fed larvae, respectively. Post HOC Tukey's HSD test indicated that silk gland weight of L. speciosa and T. arjuna fed larvae in both the rearing seasons did not differ significantly. E.I. analysis also confirmed that T. alata, T. tomentosa, T. arjuna and L. speciosa are better in their order of merit than T. bellirica, T. chebula and L. tomentosa. Multiple regression analysis indicates that larval weight gain is a strong predictor (β=1.002, t=346.777, p= <0.05) for the silk gland weight of A. mylitta; however, larval duration had significant negative regression weight (β=-0.270, t=-8.436, p= <0.05) on mean weight of silk gland. IntroductionAntheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a "tasar silk" producing polyphagous forest insect of India, but it has never been experimented in any Himalayan states of India including Uttarakhand. This is the first study on effect of forest tree species, Rainfall alters functioning of microhabitat, which along with soil and other environmental factor affect foliage quality that consequently reflect distinct impact on performance of insect (Mattson and Haack, 1987).In commercial tasar silkworm rearing, larvae should be healthy and their silk glands should be free from any abnormalities to reduce presence of non-spinning silkworms to zero. In the present work, expression of silk gland weight by A. mylitta larvae reared on seven forest tree species in two rearing season has been analyzed. Materials and Methods Study areaThe study was conducted at New Forest, Forest Research rearing seasons and their interaction on Silk Gland Weight (SGW) of A. mylitta. Silk gland of A. mylitta is an ectodermal organ, which produces liquid silk that forms cocoon fibre. Silk gland become secretory prior to hatching and increase their secretory potential by growing in size during larval life (Aru...