Abstract
Back cross with Daba TV (DTV) (donor and non-recurrent female parent) and Andhra local (recipient and recurrent male parent) ecoraces of Antheraea mylitta Drury revealed significant improvement in productivity indices of Andhra local (AL) having high commercial characters and low survival rate. Mating incompatibility of Andhra local with other eco races under captive conditions was minimized to 15.33% by achieving 84.67% of natural pairing under insitu grainage model. Significant positive heterosis (MPV) and heterobeltiosis (BPV) were expressed by Back cross – IV (BC-III×AL) hybrid for fecundity (13.00% and 4.65%), survivability (101.21% and 22.00%), silk ratio (7.40% and 3.11%) and reelability (1.58% and 7.25%) characters when compared to F1 (DTV×AL), Back cross – I (F1×AL), Back cross – II (BC-I×AL) and Back cross – III (BC-II×AL) hybrids. The high degree of variability in parental eco races and expression of heterobeltiosis
in resultant hybrids can be exploited commercially.
