Protocols for the mass rearing of the anthocorid predator, Orius tantillus (Motschulsky), were standardised by utilising UV-irradiated Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) eggs as prey. By maintaining 150 ovipositional containers with 50 O. tantillus adults in each, and by providing S. cerealella eggs as feeding and pieces of bean pods as ovipositional substrates, 86,250 nymphs could be produced per month. By taking into account the fixed and variable costs, the cost of 100 seven-day-old O. tantillus nymphs was worked out to be Rs. 34.30. The protocols developed can be adopted for commercial production.
Keywords
Orius tantillus, Sitotroga cerealella, Commercial Production, Cost of Production, Mass Rearing.
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