Artificial Food for Oak-Silkworm Raising

Oak-silkworms (Anthereae pernyi) were reared from hatching to the adult stage on a diet consisting of powder of dry leaves of oak trees (Quercus dentata T.), ‘kinako’ (powder of parched soy bean), sucrose, agar-agar, sodium dehydroacetate as an antiseptic, and water. Among 100 newly hatched oak-silkworms reared on the diet, 23 spun their cocoons. The weight of the cocoon fibres spun by one worm and the number of the eggs laid down by one moth were 0.34 g and 203, respectively, on the average.