ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Rajib Ratan Kashyap and Dulur Brahma
Insect Physiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Bodoland University, Kokrajhar, BTR, Assam, India.
Article Number: 10604 | © The Author(s). 2026
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2026;20(2):1360-1369. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.20.2.24
Received: 15 May 2025 | Accepted: 05 February 2026 | Published online: 18 May 2026
Issue online: June 2026
Abstract

In the realm of sericulture, ericulture stands as a beacon of hope for rural communities, fostering economic growth and livelihood prospects. However, the influence of disease, particularly flacherie, threatens to undermine this progress. To combat this menace, researchers embarked on a quest to unmask the causative agents behind bacterial flacherie in Samia ricini. For this, flacherie-infected larvae were collected, and hemolymph was isolated and streaked onto Petri plates having nutrient agar media. Yellowish colonies developed within 48-72 hours at 37 °C were subjected to identification through colony morphology study, biochemical tests, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The colonies were identified as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Stenotrophomonas rhizophila, and Kocuria rhizophila. The study reveals that the S. rhizophila, once deemed harmless, has the potential to cause bacterial flacherie in S. ricini and highlights their associated risks. This research documented the infestation of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Stenotrophomonas rhizophila, and Kocuria rhizophila in Samia ricini for the first time. This knowledge may further empower the sericulture industry to craft tailored solutions to mitigate flacherie, ensuring the resilience of rural livelihoods and the sustained growth of sericulture.

Keywords

Pathogenicity, Coccus, Bacillus, NCBI BLAST, FESEM

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© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.