Response of two strains of mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori was worked out for fecundity, egg fertility and hatchability on different textured and colored substrata. Five (05) topographically different textured papers namely, art paper (glossy), off-set (fine), flying paper (smooth), newspaper (coarse), craft paper (control) and six (06) colors, i.e. black, green, pink, white, yellow, brown (control) in smooth texture (flying paper) were evaluated. C-102 laid mean maximum (375.8eggs/female) as well as fertilized eggs (370.4) on craft paper while hatchability was the highest on flying paper (95.4%). Among colors, the highest total eggs per female (407.6), fertilized eggs (395.0) and hatchability (94.6%) were recorded on black color. On the other hand, 206-PO deposited mean maximum number of eggs (380.9), fertilized eggs (373.8) with hatchability (93.96%) on flying paper. Similar returns were received on brown color. For C-102 the best alternative for craft paper was flying paper and for black color was brown whereas that was vice versa for 206-PO. Newspaper and pink color gave poor results for both strains. Based on these results it is therefore recommended that for good quality silk seed production craft paper in black color and flying paper in brown color may be used for C-102 and 206-PO, respectively.

Key words Fecundity, fertility, hatchability, silkworm, Bombyx mori, substratum, color, texture.