Evaluation of a pelleted diet for larval mass‐rearing of Anastrepha ludens and Anastrepha obliqua

Abstract

AbstractMost artificial diets used for mass‐rearing of fruit fly larvae involve the purchase and independent weighing of each ingredient of the formulation, followed by mixing and diet preparation process. A ready‐to‐use formulation would avoid this time‐consuming task and simplify the preparation procedure, leading to a more standardized diet. In this work, we compared life‐history traits and survival and developmental parameters of Anastrepha ludens Loew and Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart) (Diptera: Tephritidae) reared on two formulations of an artificial diet. Two experiments were performed; first, a conventional non‐pelleted diet was compared to a newly developed pelleted diet, which was mixed with water before being given to the larvae. The second experiment consisted of a comparison between the pelleted diet which was stirred in a mixer with water and dissolved preservatives and a pelleted diet which was only soaked in water with dissolved preservatives. We found that the pelleted diet allowed the mass‐rearing of A. ludens and A. obliqua. Moreover, feeding larvae with pelleted diet led to increased weight of the larva by 7.4 and 11.8%, and of the pupa by 9.5 and 16.7% for A. ludens and A. obliqua, respectively, compared to conventional diet. For process evaluation, the number of activities, handling time, reception, storage, and larval diet preparation were recorded. The pelleted diet only needed soaking in water containing preservatives, thereby simplifying the mass‐rearing process and saving time, space, and labour. Pelletizing is a versatile technology that can be adjusted for better physicochemical quality and reduced microbiological risk. This diet should be of particular interest for the mass‐rearing process in ‘sterile insect technique’ applications.