Morales-Ramos Juan A, Kelstrup Hans C, Rojas M Guadalupe, Emery Virginia
USDA-ARS, National Biological Control Laboratory, Biological Control of Pests Research Unit, Stoneville, MS.
Beta Hatch Inc., 1421 S 192nd, Sea Tac, WA.
J Insect Sci. 2019 Mar 1;19(2). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/iey110.
Efforts to improve rearing conditions of Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) for insect biomass production included selecting for larger size pupae. The effects of an 8-yr continuous selection of T. molitor pupae for larger size were studied. Data consisting of daily counts and weights of pupae were analyzed using regression to determine the effects of selection over time. A preliminary evaluation of food conversion, growth, fecundity, and larval survival was done to compare ancestral versus selected strains. A significant positive correlation was identified between pupal size and time indicating a significant increase in pupal size over time in the selected T. molitor strain. A preliminary comparison of ancestral and selected strains showed significantly larger pupal size, growth rate, fecundity, and efficiency of conversion of ingested food in the selected strain. However, the selected strain also showed significantly lower larval survival than the ancestral strain. The low larval survival impacted the overall productivity of the selected strain resulting in no significant differences in biomass production when compared with the ancestral strain. The potential of using selection to improve biomass productivity in T. molitor is discussed.
为提高黄粉虫（鞘翅目：拟步甲科）用于昆虫生物量生产的饲养条件所做的努力包括选择体型更大的蛹。研究了对黄粉虫蛹进行连续8年的更大体型选择的效果。使用回归分析对由蛹的每日计数和重量组成的数据进行分析，以确定随时间推移选择的效果。对食物转化率、生长、繁殖力和幼虫存活率进行了初步评估，以比较原始菌株和选择后的菌株。在选择的黄粉虫菌株中，蛹的大小与时间之间存在显著的正相关，表明随着时间的推移蛹的大小显著增加。原始菌株和选择后的菌株的初步比较表明，选择后的菌株中蛹的大小、生长速率、繁殖力和摄入食物的转化率显著更大。然而，选择后的菌株幼虫存活率也显著低于原始菌株。低幼虫存活率影响了选择后菌株的整体生产力，与原始菌株相比，生物量生产没有显著差异。讨论了利用选择提高黄粉虫生物量生产力的潜力。
