Morphological and biological characteristics of Galleria mellonella L. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) reared on different artificial diets
, &
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella L.) is a common insect used as alternative host for mass rearing and research of natural enemies. Finding appropriate artificial diets can aid in increasing the efficiency of mass rearing. The study evaluated three different artificial diets by determining some biological and morphological characteristics of greater wax moths in laboratory of Plant Protection Department, Agronomy Faculty, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The experimental results showed that the artificial diet CT2 was the most effective one of the three treatments. Its larval stage was shortest, with an average of 27.6 ± 4.2 days. The greater wax moth larvae reared on CT2 grew fast and had large size. Over a period of 20 - 30 days of age, the length and width of greater wax moth larvae ranged from 11.9 ± 5.2 to 16.3 ± 6.2 mm and 2.7 ± 1.4 to 3.9 ± 1.8 mm, respectively. The female greater wax moths laid 819.0 ± 175.5 to 1,008.1 ± 354.6 eggs on average. When greater wax moths were reared on three different artificial diets, there was no difference in fecundity.
Article Details
References
Desai, A. V., Siddhapara, M. R., Patel, P. K., & Prajapati, A. P. (2019). Biology of greater wax moth Galleria mellonella L. on artifical diet. Journal of Experimental Zoology 22(2), 1267-1272.
El-Gohary, S. G., Yousif-Khalil, S. I., El-Maghraby, M. M. A., & Abd-Alla, S. M. (2018). Mass rearing of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella L. Zagazig Journal of Agricultural Research 45(2), 495-503.
El-Sawaf, S. K. (1950). The life-history of the greater waxmoth (Galleria mellonella L.) in egypt, with special reference to the morphology of the mature larva (Lepidoptera : Pyralidae). Bulletin de La Societe Fouad 1er d’entomologie 34, 247-297.
Hickin, M., Nadel, H., Schal, C., & Cohen, A. C. (2021). Optimization of a diet for the greater wax moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) using full factorial and mixture design. Journal of Economic Entomology 114(3), 1091-1103. https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toab039.
Hosamani, V., Swamy, B. C. H., Kattimani, K. N., & Kalibavi, C. M. (2017). Studies on biology of greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella L.). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 6(11), 3811-3815. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.611.447.
Knipling, E. F. (1979). The basic principles of insect population suppression and management. Washington, DC, USA: United States Government Printing Office.
Mohamed, M. A., & Coppel, H. C. (1983). Mass rearing of the greater wax moth, Galleria Mellonella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), for small-scale laboratory studies. The Great Lakes Entomologist 16(4), 7-10.