Abstract
The effects of different concentrations of riboflavin and that of total water-soluble vitamins in the nutrition of biotypes Saint-Jean and Ile-aux-Coudres of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), were determined with chemically defined diets. Omission of riboflavin in the diet resulted in a significant increase in growth, reproduction, survival and ingestion rates of the two biotypes. Aphid performance was progressively and significantly improved when the total concentration of 10 vitamins, in the absence of riboflavin, was increased from 0 to 115.6 and 231.1 mg/100 mL of diet; the aphids performed poorly when such increases were accompanied by an increase in riboflavin. Finally, a doubling in the total concentration of the 10 other dietary vitamins (i.e. to 462.2 mg/100 mL), in the absence of riboflavin, resulted in a slightly lowered performance by aphids, whereas, in the presence of riboflavin, aphid performance was significantly reduced. These results indicate that a substantial decrease in dietary riboflavin, or even its omission, and keeping the overall content of the 10 other vitamins to 231.1 mg/100 mL significantly improved the rearing of the two biotypes on such diets over at least two or three successive generations.
Published Version
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