An artificial diet with improved acceptability to three strains of Myzus Persicae (Sulz.) (Hemiptera, Aphididae)

Abstract

AbstractA laboratory-reared British strain of Myzus persicae (Sulz.) did not readily accept the artificial diet that has been used to maintain North American strains. All components of this diet were re-tested in factorial tests and a modified diet was developed which contained increased amounts of alanine, leucine, phenylalanine, serine, folic acid, calcium pantothenate and pyridoxine, while omitting arginine, glutamic acid, histidine, tryptophan, valine, ascorbic acid, choline chloride, nicotinic acid and riboflavin. This diet, although less adequate nutritionally than the original diet, could maintain M. persicae for several weeks and more than two generations. It was readily accepted by aphids with few deaths in the first generation, so that it should be more suitable than the Californian diet for bioassay of systemic insecticides and for studies on substances that might influence aphid behaviour.