Bee Colony:

• A normal colony composed of 3 kinds of individuals

• One queen (perfect female)
• Thousands of workers (imperfect females)
• Few hundreds of drones (male bees)
• These individuals vary in size
• Each colony has different developmental stages ;
eggs, larvae and pupae collectively known as brood
Queen: Only one in a colony
• Mother of whole colony producing workers and
drones.
• Virgin queen mates with many drones within 5-10 days
of emergence in the air
• Good queen can lay 1500-2000 eggs per day.
• Sperms stored in a sac like structure c/a spermatheca.
• The stored sperms utilized by queen throughout her life
time
• She does not go for mating once starts egg laying
 Queen: Only one in a colony
• Function: lay eggs; No motherly instinct or ability to
feed brood.
• Lays two types of eggs
• Fertilized eggs: Workers (also queens)
• Unfertilized eggs: Drones
• Work satisfactorily for 2 or more years, can live 8
years or longer.
Workers: Imperfect females
• unable to mate, may start egg laying if colony remains queen less for
long period.
• Perform all the useful work in the colony (duties related to age)
 Construct combs, Clean hive, Feed larvae, Secrete bees wax
 Raise queen cells, ventilate hive, guard the hive entrance
 Collect nectar and convert into honey, pollen, water and propolis
 Produce a predigested food of royal jelly
 Scouting for a new nest site during swarming
 Feed drones but when not needed, they are thrown out of hive
 Average life: 40-50 days during honey flow season (active period), 6
months during off season
 Drones
• Do not perform any duty inside the hive
• Sole function: Mate once which costs him his life
• Maximum life of drone honeybee in summer is 59
days.
• Help in regulating temperature of hive sometimes
along with worker bees
 Predatory Wasps

Vespa auraria Nests on tree tops/buildings

Vespa magnifica Under-ground nest
Vespa cincta Underground nest
Vespa basalis Nest on tree top/buildings
 Predatory wasps: Nature of damage
• The wasps catch the bees at hive entrance and kill them.
• Most serious damage in hills is caused by V. magnifica
• The weak colonies may even perish due to its attack.
Prevention and control:
• Kill the fecunded females visiting the apiary during spring by
flapping.
• Burn the nests during night time.
• Kill the wasps in the apiary by flapping
 Wax moth:
• Galleria mellonella, Nature of
damage:
• Attack more prevalent during
monsoon.
• Wax moth larvae tunnel through
the mid ribs of the comb and
presence of small mass of minute
wax particles outside the tunnels.
• Severe infestation, brood rearing is
stopped; bees stop field work and
colony may abscond.
 Diseases of Honey Bees
Disease Causal Organism Infection Stage
European foul Melissococcus Mid gut Larvae
brood (1971 in A. pluton
cerana Late
1990's: in A.
mellifera from NI)
American foul Paenibacillus Gut Larvae
brood larvae
Nosema Nosema apis Stomach Adult
(Protozoan)
Chalk Brood Ascosphaera apis Gut Larvae
 Diseases of Honeybees
Disease Causal Organism Infection Stage
Acarine disease Acarapis woodi Trachea and Body Adult
Sac Brood Virus Morator aetatulas Skin Larva
CCD (Colony Manutrition, Colony disappears Worker bees
Collapse Disorder) Pathogens, GM
Crops
Enemies of Honeybee
Greater Wax Moth Galleria melonella Lesser Wax Moth Achroia grisela
SERICULTURE
Introduction to Sericulture
• SERICULTURE: Two French words,
Seris: silk and Culture: rearing.
• Sericulture: The cultivation of
silkworms to produce silk.
• Silk was first produced in China as
early as the Neolithic period.
❖ By 140 AD the practice had been established in India.
❖ Bombyx mori (the caterpillar of the domesticated silk moth) is the
most widely used species of silkworms).
❖ Mulberry silk is also called Mori silk whereas, Non mulberry silk is
called Vanya silk.
❖ India is the producer of all the five commercially traded varieties of
natural silks namely
1. Mulberry
2. Tropical Tasar
3. Oak Tasar
4. Eri
5. Muga
What is Silk ?
• Silk is “Queen of Textiles”
• It is a natural protein fiber secreted by
silkworms in form a thread about 400-1500m
long, spun into a cocoon “shell”
• Silk – 2 proteins
• Fibroin: inner core comprising 75% of
silk
• Sericin: outer gum comprising 25% of
silk.
• These silk proteins are synthesized by silk
glands present in silkworms.
• Besides proteins, silk has small residues of
fat, resin, minerals and waxy materials.
Silk type, Host Plant Color etc Common Area
Insect name
Mulberry Silk: Mulberry Domesticated
Bombyx mori L (Morus silkworm
sp.)

Tasar silk: Asan and Arjun Copperish, Tropical Tasar Tribal of

Antheraea (Terminalia sp.) Used for silkworm, Jharkhand,
mylitta furnishing forests Chhattisgarh,
and interiors Orissa,Maha
rashtra, West
Bengal and
Andhra
Pradesh
Silk type Insect Host Plant Color etc Common Area
name
Oak Antheraea Oak Finer Temperate sub-Himalayan belt
Tasar proylei plants variety of Tasar
(Quercus Tasar silkworm
sp.)
Eri silk Samia Castor leaves spun from Domestic
cynthia open- ated
ricini ended silkworm
cocoons

Muga silk Antheraea Som (Persia Golden Aromatic Exclusive

assama bombycina) yellow leaves produce of
Sualu (Litsea India, Assam
polyantha)
SILK TYPE SILKWORM HOST PLANT DISTRIBUTION

Mulberry silk Bombyx mori Morus alba Europe

M. Indica China
M. Serrata USA
M. Lattifolia
Tropical Tasar silk Antheraea mylitta Terminalia Tropical forest
tomentosa zone (Bihar
(asan or yen) Jharkhand to
T. Arjuna (arjun) Karnataka)
Shorea robusta (sal)
SILK TYPE SILKWORM HOST PLANT DISTRIBUTION

Temperate tasar A. proylei Quercus serrata(oak) Sub Himalayan

silk A. roylei region and eastern
India
Muga silk A. Assama Machilus bombycina Brahmaputra valley
(som)
Litsaea polyantha
(soalu)

Eri or errandi silk Samia ricini Castor, Assam and

Ricinus communis eastern parts of
(kesseru) India
Mulberry silk moth
Tasar silk moth

Muga silk moth Eri Silk moth

Life cycle
Eggs are of 2 types:

The diapausing type of eggs:

Laid by the silk moth
inhabiting in temperate regions

The non-diapausing eggs:

Silk moths inhabitating in sub-
tropical regions like India
 Stages of production
❖ Silk moth lays thousands of eggs.
❖ Eggs hatch: Larvae known as
silkworms.
❖ Larvae feed on mulberry leaves.
❖ After full larval growth secretes a silk
fiber and forms a net to hold itself.
❖ It swings its head from side to side in
a figure '8' distributing the saliva that
forms silk.
Silk gland: Single layer of secretory cells (Labial
glands)

Silk gland has 3 parts: Anterior silk gland,

Middle silk gland and Posterior silk gland

Anterior part: no secretory function

Middle part: Secrete sericin

Posterior part: Secrete fibroin (Hind Gut)

 Stages of Production
❖Silk solidifies when it comes in contact with
air.
❖The silkworm spins completely encloses itself
in a cocoon in about two or three days.
❖The intact cocoons are boiled, killing the
silkworm pupa.
❖The silk filaments are then wound on a reel.
❖One cocoon contains approximately 915m of
silk filament.
❖The silk at this stage is known as Raw silk.
The weight in gm of
The size of a normal
900 m long silk
cocoon is 1.8 to 3
filament is called a
deniers.
“Denier”

A single cocoon weight

is 1.8 to 2 gm and its About 2500 cocoons
shell (without enclosed yield 0.45 kg of silk.
pupa) is only 0.45 gm.
• Harvesting: Removing and selecting
operation of cocoons and sell them to
market or transport to reeling industry
• Reeling: Removal of silk thread; about
58% of the silk in each cocoon is
reelable, remainder is used as silk waste
and formed into spun silk.
• Throwing: The free ends of silk
filament of 5-10 cocoons are picked
together, fixed on reeling appliance and
twisted into a single thick thread.
Pebrine: Protozoan (Nosema bombycis): Pepper like spots on body, and
larvae become wrinkled, skinned and sluggish, Transovarial transmission

Flacherie: Flacherie virus (Picornavirus): Putrification of body and emits

foul smell, affects nuclei of midgut epithelial cells

Muscardine: Fungus (White: Beauveria bassiana) (Green: Metarhizium

anisopliae) (Yellow: Iscaria farinose), Hyphae come out from
intersegmental membrane all over the body of the larva

Grasserie: (NPV) Borrelina virus: Swelling of segment and skin rupture

Uzi flies: Tricholyga bombycis (Diptera): Young maggots bore into
the body of silkworms and live in and eat fat body for about a week ,
causing the death

Dermestid beetles: Dermestes cadeverinus larvae and adults feed on

cocoons

Other predators include ant, lizards, rats, squirrels, birds etc.

 LAC CULTURE

LAC CULTURE
• The term “Lac” derived from
Sanskrit word “Lakha” meaning a
hundred thousand
• It is mentioned in the
Mahabharata as Lakhagriha
(Lac house)
• Rearing of lac insects for
commercial production of the lac is
c/a lac culture.
• The first scientific account of the
lac insect was given by J. Kerr in
1782
• India: 65% of total lac production is seen in
India. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh account
for 40% of India’s total production of lac.
• Economic importance of Lac:
1.Preparing Bangles.
2.Preparation of toys.
3.Preparation of inks and polishes.
4.Used in woodwork and for making
ornamental things.
5.Used in process of silvering the back of
mirror.
 Biology
❖ Scientific Name: Laccifer lacca (Tachardia lacca)
❖ Order : Hemiptera
❖ Host plants : Kusum, Rangeeni (Khair), Ber
(Plum) tree
❖ Feeds on plant juice (Sap)
❖ Lac is the only commercial resin of animal origin
❖ Lac is a mixture of several substances, but resin is
major constituent.
❖ Resin: 68 - 90%
• Life Cycle : 6 months

• Female insect: Ovoviviparous

• The larvae settle down on a suitable place of the host plant.
• After settlement, the larvae thrusts its proboscis into the twig
and start secreting lac all around the body except on the
rostrum, spiracles and on the tip of abdomen.
• Thus, it gets encased in a cell of lac which gradually
increases in size along with increase in size of the insect.
• The female nymph never regain
appendages after moult and remain under
the lac cell, become adults and reproduce.
• Males walk over the lac encrustation,
fertilize the females present inside cell
through anal tubercular opening
• Female after maturity grow very fast,
secrets lack abundantly.
• Size of the female cell is three times
larger than male cell.
Female insect Male insect

Male and Female cells

Palas Kusum Ber
 ✓ Two distinct strains: Kusumi and Rangeeni
Strains of ✓ Kusumi strain: Kusum tree
✓ Rangeeni: All other hosts Palas, Ber, Ghont, Arhar
Lac Insect etc.
✓ Each strain: two crops in a year (four crops).
✓ Kusumi: Aghani & Jethwi
✓ Rangeeni: Katki & Baisakhi
✓ Lac culture involves three important steps:
✓ Inoculation
✓ Swarming
✓ Harvesting
❑ Inoculation: The method by which the lac insects are
introduced to the new lac host plant.
❑ Natural Inoculation: When infection from one plant to other
occurs by natural movements of insect, it is called natural
inoculation.
❑ Brood Lac: Lac sticks, having mature female insects ready
to give rise to the next generation.
❑ Prior to about two weeks of hatching, lac bearing sticks are
cut to the size of six inches and used for inoculation.
• SWARMING: Mass movement of nymph from female cell to
new off shoots of host plant.
• At the time of swarming, insect muscle contrast and insect get
detached from the place of attachment and when the eggs are to
be hatched out, they become orange coloured. Thus, the change
in colour is an indication that swarming has taken place.

• Ari Lac: If lac crops are harvested little before the larval
emergence (immature lac).
• Phunki Lac: After the escape of nymphs from brood lac, the stick
lac is left called as Phunki Lac (empty lac).
 Lac Extraction
▪ Phunki lac, tied in bundles and immerse in water
(Running water for 3 – 4 days)
▪ Keep in shade for drying
▪ Scrape raw lac while stick is still moist
▪ Crush the lac and wash in water and dried in open
▪ An amber-coloured granular material called Seed Lac
is formed.
 Lac Extraction
• Seed lac (packed in cloth bags) held above charcoal
fire and starts melting.
• Molten lac starts flowing through pores of cloth and
leaves impurities behind c/a Kiri Lac.
• Pure lac is dropped on cold surface into round
button shaped pieces or stretched into thin sheets c/a
Shellac