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ABSTRACT
Muga is an exclusive naturally golden coloured wild silk obtained by the Antherea assamensis silkworm species grown in the north-eastern region of India. Although many research studies on Bombyx mori silk can be found, but studies that involve muga silk is uncommon. This article attempts to characterise the muga cocoon of two commercially available crops (Kotia and Jethua) in three prominent muga rearing regions. Reeling studies on these have also been conducted to assess the regional and seasonal influences on silk reelability performance. Kotia cocoons are found to possess better cocoon quality and reeling performance in comparison to Jethua muga cocoons.
Keywords: Muga silk, Silk Reeling, Cocoon quality, Kotia, Jethua.
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1. Introduction
Silk is a luxurious natural fibre also known as the queen of textiles. Silk is a generic term used for the protein fibres secreted by several species of insects. Silkworms secrete silk fibres to build protective shells known as cocoons during the end of the larval stage in their life cycle. Silkworms are mainly classified into two groups, mulberry {Bombyx species which thrive on mulberry leaves) and non-mulberry {Antheraea species which thrive on various host plant leaves). Non-mulberry silks are also known as wild silks or Vanya silks in India.
Although there is much literature available in mulberry silk related research (Chollakup et al., 2005; Tian et al., 2008), research articles on non-mulberry silk are very scarce. Among the non-mulberry silks, muga is the most critical and important, particularly for two reasons viz. its natural colour and exclusivity of the region. The naturally golden coloured strands of muga silk are recognised worldwide as an exclusive silk. From the ancient times to date, India is the only producer of this silk.
Muga in the Assamese language means golden-yellowish colour. Muga silk is famous for its natural golden colour, luster, texture and durability (Rajkhowa et al., 2000). This silk is produced by the silkworm Antheraea assamensis Helfer endemic to the Assam state of India. About 110 MT of muga silk is produced annually in India. Muga silkworms and moths are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. Muga silkworm is a holometabolous insect, which passes through a complete metamorphosis from egg to adult moth stage through two...