International Journal of Tropical Insect Science (2009) 29, 102-107
K. Muralimohan, S.P. Kamath, K.S. Mohan, K.C. Ravi, Farah Deeba, Sakuntala Sivasupramaniam and Graham P. Head (2009)
Mass rearing diet for the pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and its susceptibility to insecticidal Bt proteins
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science 29 (2), 102-107
Abstract: A study was carried out to develop a diet for mass rearing of the pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saund.) and optimize bioassays for testing the bollworm's sensitivity to two insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). A P. gossypiella colony was established in the laboratory from field collections and its developmental biology was compared on various test diets. Larvae reared on a diet of cottonseed and chickpea flours for the first 10 days and subsequently on pieces of okra attained rapid growth and development. This two-phase diet has been used for successful laboratory rearing of 51 generations of the bollworm. Neonates were found to be sensitive to both the Bt proteins Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab2, which are produced by the transgenic Bt cotton products Bollgard™ and Bollgard II™.
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Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Komarlingam S Mohan, Graham Head, Sakuntala Sivasupramaniam
Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
rearing/culturing/mass production
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
evaluation - screening - selection
