Modeling adult emergence and fecundity of factitious hosts under different food sources supports massive egg production management.

Abstract

Ephestia kuehniella (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae) and Sitotroga cerealella (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae) are important factitious hosts used for production of biological control agents. Their differences in terms of biology and behavior require adjustments in their mass production, particularly when using corn or barley as food in grain or in bran. We modeled adult emergence, oviposition period and egg production along time after emergence, as a function of the food source. Significant differences between hosts or food type were found for these variables and for adult weight but not for sex ratio. Our results confirm the possibility of mass production of these hosts using corn or barley as food source. Integrating adult emergence patterns and age specific fecundity patterns into a single model, it is clear that rearing E. kuehniella on barley would result in the highest egg output in much shorter time than E. kuehniella on corn or S. cerealella on barley.