Author
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Chang, Chiou |
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Submitted to: Fruit Flies of Economic Importance International Symposium
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/2006 Publication Date: 9/10/2006 Citation: Chang, C.L. 2006. Liquid Larval Diet for Fruit Flies. Fruit Flies of Economic Importance International Symposium. Interpretive Summary: Oriental fruit flies are worldwide pests. In order to achieve SIT (Sterilization Insect Technology) control program, a mass production of insects needed to be reared in the laboratory. The Oriental fruit flies have been mass reared using wheat bran or its products as bulking agents for SIT program in Hawaii, Taiwan and South East Asia for the past 6 decades. The product from this technology was good, but not cost-effective therefore, a fruit fly liquid diet has been developed. This is a diet without mill feed as a biological bulking agent and it possesses many advantages over the conventional mill feed diet such as simplified spent diet management, reduction in labor and space because the insects consumed most of diet leaving only a small amount for disposal. Technical Abstract: Fruit fly liquid larvae diet has been developed for rearing Bactrocera dorsalis and B. cucurbitae in small and large scales and is ready for technology transfer into factory scale. The most appropriate rearing conditions using liquid diet up-to-date have been identified as follows: (1) basic diet formula: sugar 8.99%, brewer’s yeast 15.06%, nipagen 0.15%, sodium benzoate 0.15%, citric acid 1.70%, and water 73.81%; (2) tray: green or shallow fiberglass trays; (3) egg seeding density: 2.5 ml of eggs; (4) diet volume: 1250 ml; (5) screen: coarse screen or optional depending on the tray design; (6) water quality: tap water; (7) supporting material: sponge cloth (8) enhancer: Additives: wheat germ oil. With these rearing conditions, pupal production is 24105.30 + 852.33 pupae per 2.5 ml of eggs/tray in comparison to those from the conventional mill feed diet of 21179.58 + 1614.12 pupae/tray. Other parameters such as developmental period, pupal weight, adult emergence, flier, mating, egg production and egg hatch are identical to those from control diet. Further liquid diet improvements are ongoing. Data was analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance using the ANOVA and Proc Univariate procedure of the SAS statistical analysis software package with honest significant difference (HSD). |
