Application of eri pupa fed with cassava leaf for Cordyceps militaris cultivation

Abstract

Eri silkworm was reared with Kasetsart 50 (KU50), the well-known cassava variety, in laboratory (25±2°C, 80±5% R.H.). The completely randomized design was used with 3 replications and 300 lavae/replication. The average intake of larva stages 1^st-5^th was 18.28 g/larva. Its life cycle was between 45-59 days. The survival periods of larva (1^st-5^th instar) and larva (1^st-5^th instar) – adult were 93.33% and 86.67%, respectively. Whereas, the average larva weight (5^th instar, date 5) was 4.4779 g/larva. For pupa weight, which was applied to mix in cultured media for Cordyceps militaris, was gained as 441.98 g. Besides, the average essential egg yield for continuously rearing of eri silkworm was the total hatching eggs (4,930.50 eggs). In the case of using this ground pupa to mix with C. militaris growing media (riceberry grains), the selected isolate at 60 day-old gave the average stroma yields: 31.67 stromata/bottle with the height of 3.97 cm, stroma fresh weight of 27.46 g/bottle and dry weight of 1.87 g/bottle. Whereas, substrate had 28.02 and 12.43 g/bottle for fresh and dry weight, respectively. Besides, the proximate analysis of C. militaris expressed protein (35.37%), carbohydrate (45.60%), fat (2.46%), crude fiber (5.99%), ash (4.93%) and moisture (5.65%), while cordycepin contents were 457 mg/100 g in stroma and 921 mg/100 g in substrate.