INTRODUCTION Silkworm Bombyx mori L. spins silken armour around its body for protection during its metamorphosis, which forms the economical part i.e., silk. Spinning is important for satisfying silkworm’s physiological requirement by excreting amino acids from the body (Henry, 1984). To exploit the commercial nature of these amino acids exuded in the form of silk thread, the silkworms are domesticated and made to spin on artificial substrate which supports spinning and these structures are called mountages. The mounting material used for spinning of cocoons must be easily available, economically viable and providing adequate space for cocooning (Tanaka, 1964). It is quite evident that the mounting material or mountage plays an important role for successful seriposition (Singh et al., 2012). It has been observed that if the silkworm crop is healthy but wrong mounting methods, spinning conditions and bad type of mounting material can result in inferior or poor quality cocoons and silk yarn leading to lower income to farmers (Singh et al., 2011). It has also been observed when material and structure of the mountage are not proper, the reelability of the cocoons is reduced and other features like double cocoons, deformed cocoons and soiled cocoons get increased (Mathur and Qadri 2010). It has been observed that sericulture farmers in this part of the country are suffering huge cocoon crop losses at the terminal stage of silkworm rearing on account of using faulty mountages. Thus it was felt extremely essential to identify and develop the locally available and cost effective mountages to help the farmers to realize the full benefits of their hard labour. MATERIAL AND METHODS The present investigation entitled “Evaluation of locally available mounting materials on the rearing performance of mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori L.” was carried out during 2021 in the Division of Cocoon Crop Production at College of Temperate Sericulture, Mirgund. Silkworm rearing was conducted as per the standard package of practices (Rajan, 2000). Procurement of the mounting material was done from the reliable sources and processed to render it free from moisture and any other contamination. Five different mountages viz., mulberry shoot mountages, dried grass mountages, typha grass mountages, maize straw mountages and wicker willow shoot mountages were designed in such a way so as to create appropriate slots for cocoon formation (Plate 1). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Statistical analysis of the data revealed that there exists significant differences with regard to average filament length. Among the evaluated mountages Plastic collapsible mountage (control) recorded maximum (1099m) average filament length which was at par with Maize straw mountage with average filament length of 1068 meters. The average filament length recorded by other treatments include: Typha grass mountage (1025m), Mulberry shoot mountage (1022m), Dried grass mountage (1013m) and Wicker willow shoot mountage (966m) (Table 1). This receives support from the findings of Haroon et al., (2018) who while evaluating different mountages has come up with the similar findings. There was non-significant effect of the treatments on the non breakable filament length. However maximum non-breakable filament length of 533m was observed in case of plastic collapsible mountage followed by Maize straw mountage with non-breakable filament length of 476 meters. The non-breakable filament length recorded by other treatments include: Typha grass mountage (475m), Dried grass mountage (472m), Mulberry shoot mountage (465m) and Wicker willow shoot mountage (456m) (Table 1). The effect of different mountages on the denier of silkworm Bombyx mori L. was found to be non-significant, however, among the evaluated mountages Plastic collapsible mountage (control) recorded least (2.60) denier followed by Maize straw mountage with denier of 2.64. Denier recorded by other treatments include: Typha grass mountage (2.84), Dried grass mountage (2.86), Mulberry shoot mountage (2.87) and Wicker willow shoot mountage (2.89) (Table 1). Statistical analysis of the data revealed that there exists significant differences with regard to reelability. Among the evaluated mountages Plastic collapsible mountage (control) recorded maximum (84.12%) reelability followed by Maize straw mountage with reelability of 82.35 percentage. Reelability recorded by other treatments include: Typha grass mountage (81.92%), Mulberry shoot mountage (79.80%), Dried grass mountage (79.30%) and Wicker willow shoot mountage (76.97%) (Table 1). These results are in conformity with the findings of Haroon et al., (2018) who evaluated five different types of locally available plant material and came up with the similar findings. Reeling analysis of the samples revealed that significant differences exist with respect to reelability percentage. Maximum reelability of 84.12 percent was observed in case of plastic collapsible mountage which was at par with maize straw mountage with reelability of 82.35 percent. These results are in line with the findings of Haroon et al. (2018) who evaluated five different types of locally available plant material and came up with the similar findings. There was a significant difference among treatments with regard to raw silk percentage, Maximum raw silk percentage of 16.97 per cent was recorded in case of plastic collapsible mountages which was at par with maize straw mountage with raw silk percentage of 16.26 per cent. According to Shillin Sangappa et al. (2010) the structure of cocooning frame is believed to play a major role in quality of raw silk which is evidenced by the present investigation too.