EN
The combining ability effects of five silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) stains and their 20F1's including reciprocals were analysed in a 5 x 5diallel cross for seven silk yield attributes, viz. effective rate of rearing (ERR), a measure of survival, cocoon yield, cocoon weight, shell weight,raw silk percentage, silk filament length/cocoon and silk reelability.Higher vaues of specific combining ablty (SCA) than the corresponding general combining ability (GCA) for all the attributes except E and cocoon yield are indicative of non-additive gene action.The parental strain JC2P was the best general combiner for all the attributes,except cocoon yield.The highest general combining ability effect for cocoon yield was shown by N4.The highest desirable or positive SCA effects resulted from N4xSH 2 (all the attributes except shell weght), JC2Px14M (all the attributes except cocoon weigh and shell weight), 14MxSH2 (all the attributes except ERR), N4xSPJ1 (all the attributes except shell weight and raw silk percentage).Only one reciprocal, namely SPJ1x N4, showed positive effects for all the atributes except silk reelability.The improvement of cocoon yield through mass selectiion followed by intermating and the use of the parental strain JC2P in future cross breeding are discussed.