The bacterium B. subtilis isolated from the eggs of the silkworm
was grown in nutrient broth and used as inoculums.
About 600 freshly molted third instar larvae were starved for
6e8 h and divided into three groups A, B and C each containing
200 larvae. The inoculums of 1.0 106 CFU and 4.0 106 CFU
per larvae of B. subtilis, smeared on a 1 cm2 piece of mulberry
leaves, and fed to larvae of groups A and B, respectively.
Larvae of group C were fed with 1 cm2 piece of mulberry leaf
smeared with sterile nutrient broth and used as a control.