European Journal of Entomology (2009) 106, 193-198

M.A. Jalali, L. Tirry and P.D. Clercq (2009)
Food consumption and immature growth of Adalia bipunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on a natural prey and a factitious food
European Journal of Entomology 106 (2), 193-198
Abstract: One factor limiting the adoption of aphidophagous coccinellids in augmentative biological control is cost-effective mass production. The use of factitious foods may lower production costs by reducing space and manpower requirements for mass rearing of the predator and its prey and by enhancing mechanization of rearing procedures. The objective of this study was to compare the efficiency of food conversion, consumption indices and growth rates of first to fourth instars of Adalia bipunctata when fed either a mixture of Ephestia kuehniella eggs and fresh bee pollen, or on the natural prey Myzus persicae. Larval survival did not differ among treatments, averaging 80 and 90% on the respective diets. Mean dry body weights of the coccinellid were significantly lower on M. persicae than on the factitious food only for second instars and the pre-pupal stage. Dry food consumption by the predator throughout larval development averaged 20.61 mg on factitious food and 14.82 mg (corresponding to an average of 284 third and fourth instars) on M. persicae. The efficiency of conversion of ingested food for total larval development averaged 25 and 30% on factitious food and aphids, respectively. The relative growth rate of the larval instars was higher on aphids, whereas the consumption index was higher on the mixture of E. kuehniella eggs and pollen. An additional experiment showed that rearing the previous instars on the factitious food had no substantial effect on aphid consumption in the fourth instar. The study suggests that this factitious diet may be an appropriate food source for mass rearing A. bipunctata.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Database assignments for author(s): Patrick De Clercq, M. Amin Jalali, Luc Tirry

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
rearing/culturing/mass production

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Myzus persicae
Adalia bipunctata (predator)	Myzus persicae