Ovchinnikov Andrey N, Ovchinnikova Antonina A, Reznik Sergey Y, Belyakova Natalia A
Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya 1, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia.
All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection, Russian Academy of Sciences, Podbelskogo 3, 196608 St. Petersburg, Russia.
Insects. 2024 Jun 28;15(7):484. doi: 10.3390/insects15070484.
Feeding on mixed, alternating, or changing diets often favor insect development. With the aim to optimize mass rearing and use for the biological control of insect pests, we investigated the effects of various combinations of high-quality (the green peach aphid ) and low-quality (eggs of the grain moth ) foods on the larval development of a predatory ladybird In the first experiment, eggs and aphids were mixed in different proportions; in the second experiment, larvae switched from feeding on aphids to feeding on eggs. Although the beneficial additive effect of mixed foods was detected in some treatments with limited diets, feeding on various combinations of eggs with aphids never resulted in higher survival, faster development, or a larger size of emerging adults than those observed for feeding on unlimited amounts of aphids. For the practice of biological control, we conclude that, if necessary (for example, in the case of temporary shortage or a lack of aphids in mass rearing facilities or in the case of preventing release of adults in greenhouses), larvae can be fed with grain moth eggs by replacing, mixing, or alternating with aphids, although this will inevitably result in a proportional decrease in pre-adult survival, rate of development, weight, and size of the emerging adults. On the other hand, even a minimal addition of aphids can have a substantial positive effect on larvae fed with grain moth eggs.
以混合、交替或变化的食物为食通常有利于昆虫的发育。为了优化大规模饲养并用于害虫的生物防治，我们研究了高质量食物（桃蚜）和低质量食物（麦蛾卵）的各种组合对捕食性瓢虫幼虫发育的影响。在第一个实验中，将卵和蚜虫按不同比例混合；在第二个实验中，幼虫从以蚜虫为食转变为以卵为食。尽管在一些有限食物处理中检测到了混合食物的有益相加效应，但与以无限量蚜虫为食相比，以蚜虫和卵的各种组合为食从未导致更高的存活率、更快的发育速度或更大的成虫体型。对于生物防治实践，我们得出结论，如有必要（例如，在大规模饲养设施中暂时短缺或缺乏蚜虫的情况下，或在温室中防止成虫释放的情况下），可以用麦蛾卵替代、混合或交替喂食蚜虫来喂养幼虫，尽管这将不可避免地导致成虫前存活率、发育速度、体重和体型成比例下降。另一方面，即使添加极少量的蚜虫也会对以麦蛾卵为食的幼虫产生显著的积极影响。
