World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

STUDIES ON THE PHYLLOPLANE MYCOFLORA OF OAK TASAR FOOD PLANT (QUERCUS SERRATA THUNB.) AND THEIR IMPACT ON REARING PERFORMANCE OF OAK TASAR SILKWORM ANTHERAEA PROYLEI JOLLY

Ananda Krishna Gogoi, Pradip Kumar Baruah and Manjit Kumar Ray*

ABSTRACT

The aerial surface of Oak tasar food plant (Quercus serrata Thunb.) belong to the family Fagaceae, growing under natural conditions in Umrangso area of Dima Hasao district of Assam , boarding the hill regions and usually covered with large and varied populations of micro-organisms. The Oak tasar silkworm (Antheraea proylei Jolly.) is a bivoltine .Oak tasar food plant (Quercus serrata Thunb.) is a primary food plant of oak tasar silkworm. Its leaves provide a unique environment to their surface occupants and the typical leaves exudates influence the growth and development of the varieties of leaf surface micro-organisms. These microflora play an important role in supplying different types of nutrients to the plants as well as the silkworms.The present study deals with the isolation of the leaf surface mycoflora of Oak tasar leaves in different ages of leaves namely-tender,semi-mature, and mature leaves during the two rearing seasons i.e spring and autumn. 11 fungi have been isolated and indentified from the Oak tasar leaves during the two seasons. Aspergillus niger was the dominant species and Alternarea alternata was the co-dominant species in both the seasons while Penicillum species was prevalent during autumn. Studies on the rearing Oak Tasar silkworm during the corresponding seasons revealed better performance during spring season with a higher ERR(65.1%)and SR(10.17%) as compared to the autumn season.

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