An improved alternative artificial diet for mass rearing of the maize stalk borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Abstract

Eleven artificial diets with principal base-ingredients as pulses and beans, viz . winged bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus ; green gram, Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek; dew gram, Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marichat; broad bean, Vicia fabia (L.); soybean, Glycine max Merr.; and cluster bean, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba Taub., were formulated either alone or in combination, for the mass rearing of Chilo partellus (Swinhoe). On the basis of important biological parameters having direct bearing on the selection of media for rearing, seven diets were unsuitable. These diets were compounded with either winged bean, soybean grains (dry and water soaked), or broad bean or with different quantities of cluster bean blended with green gram and dew gram as principal base-ingredients. The superiority of the remaining four diets based on (i) kidney bean, (ii) kidney bean + sorghum leaf powder, (iii) green gram + dew gram, and (iv) green gram + dew gram + sorghum leaf powder, was established. The modified green gram + dew gram + sorghum leaf powder-based diet has an added advantage over its original version due to low cost of production of moths and eggs in both the generations. This highlights the formulation of a new modified diet which can be utilized not only as an alternative to the original green gram + dew gram based diet but also can replace it to overcome the phenomenon of inbreeding depression due to continued rearing in the same diet.