ARTIFICIAL REARING ON THE NYMPHAL DEVELOPMENTAL TIME AND SURVIVAL OF THREE REDUVIID PREDATORS OF WESTERN GHATS, TAMIL NADU

Abstract

ABSTRACT The possibility of more numbers of entomophagous insects for their use in biological control strategies is an old objective carried on, among others, by the rearing in different kinds of artificial diets. The artificial rearing of predatory insects started a long time ago, with the main goal of obtaining a mean to multiply and produce predators to be released in biological control strategies. Reduviid species are biological control agents of numerous invasive pests. However, very few insects have been used in the pest management programme because of the lack of rearing methods. For the first time rearing of three reduviid predators like Sycanus collaris, Panthose bmaculatus and Panthose bmaculatus using meat-based artificial diet under laboratory conditions has been introduced. Incubation period is shorter in Rhynocoris kumarii Ambrose and Livingstone (10 days) than Sycanus collaris (15 days) and Panthose bmaculatus (21 days). Panthose bmaculatus significantly took more days to complete the nymphal developmental period (101.12 ± 2.30 days) with more survival rate (62.94) than other reduviids. The result suggests that these reduviids can be reared using meat-based artificial diets and can be utilized in pest management programme.