Informatics Publishing Limited

Siddharth Tiwari ¹, M. A. Khan ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia 240 060, US
2 Department Entomology, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar 263145, Uttaranchal, IN

Abstract

Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton) is a laboratory host for mass production of Trichogramma spp. and other biocontrol agents. In the present study for rearing Corcyra, three diets were used as broken maize alone, broken maize + yeast (2%) and broken maize + protinex (2%). Maize + yeast combination gave the best results in terms of mean total adults emergence (2211), mean total females (985), mean fecundity (397.85) and mean duration of moths emergence (52.31 days), while average developmental period was lowest (36 days) when compared with other two diets. The effect of egg laying on parasitization by T. chilonis revealed that highest mean per cent parasitization of 51.96 (mean of 1^st to 6^th day laying) was obtained on eggs laid by moths reared on maize + yeast diet. The highest mean per cent parasitization (73.9) was obtained on 2^nd day egg laying.

Keywords

Corcyra cephalonica, Natural Diet, Parasitization, Protinex, Trichogramma chilonis, Yeast.

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