Rumbos Christos I, Bliamplias Dimitrios, Gourgouta Marina, Michail Vasilios, Athanassiou Christos G
Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology, Department of Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, 38446 Volos, Greece.
Fyto-Animal Services (F.A.S.), 40009 Larissa, Greece.
Insects. 2021 Mar 27;12(4):293. doi: 10.3390/insects12040293.
The exploitation of agricultural byproducts and organic side-streams as insect feeding substrates is advantageous for insect farming both from an economic and a sustainability perspective. In this context, in the present study we evaluated the suitability of ten byproducts of the cereal and legume seed cleaning process for the rearing of larvae of the yellow mealworm, , and the lesser mealworm, . Byproducts were offered singly to 20 and 50 larvae with provision of carrots as moisture source. After four weeks of undisturbed development, larval weight and survival was evaluated biweekly until pupation. Feed utilization and economic feasibility parameters were determined for each byproduct at the end of the bioassays. Our results show the suitability of several of the byproducts tested for the rearing of and larvae. The best results though among the byproducts tested in terms of larval growth and survival, development time and feed utilization were obtained with larvae fed with lupin and triticale byproducts, which efficiently supported complete larval development. The results of our study aim to boost the integration of circular economy strategies with insect farming practices.
从经济和可持续性角度来看，将农业副产品和有机副产物用作昆虫饲养基质对昆虫养殖是有利的。在此背景下，在本研究中，我们评估了谷物和豆类种子清理过程中的十种副产品对黄粉虫幼虫和黑粉虫幼虫饲养的适用性。将副产品单独提供给20只和50只幼虫，并提供胡萝卜作为水分来源。在不受干扰的发育四周后，每两周评估一次幼虫体重和存活率，直至化蛹。在生物测定结束时，确定每种副产品的饲料利用率和经济可行性参数。我们的结果表明，所测试的几种副产品适用于黄粉虫和黑粉虫幼虫的饲养。不过，在所测试的副产品中，就幼虫生长和存活、发育时间和饲料利用率而言，喂食羽扇豆和小黑麦副产品的幼虫取得了最佳结果，这些副产品有效地支持了幼虫的完全发育。我们的研究结果旨在促进循环经济战略与昆虫养殖实践的整合。
