Nutritional ecology of Schistocerca piceifrons piceifrons adults from Socorro Island, Mexico

Abstract

Nutritional ecology of the Central American locust Schistocerca piceifrons piceifrons was studied using specimens from Socorro Island, Mexico. They were fed in the laboratory with common plants obtained from the island: Ficus cotinifolia (Moraceae), Cordia curassavica (Boraginaceae), Nicotiana stocktonii (Solanaceae), and Psidium sartorianum (Myrtaceae). We measured nutritional and growth rates in dry weights: intake, gain in weight, as well as some Waldbauer indices equivalents: efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), efficiency of conversion of digested (absorbed) food ( ECD), and approximate digestibility (AD). We compared nutritional indices equivalents between female and male, between gregarious and solitary phases and between diets, employing ANCOVAs. We found no differences in metabolic efficiencies between female and male locusts, no differences between gregarious and solitary locusts. We found that F. cotinifolia is a food plant that favors the intake, nutritional efficiencies and steady growth of the Central American locust, in comparison to other food plants.