Fecundity, egg fertility and longevity of laboratory reared the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera : Gelichidiea)‎ under different adult diet regimes

Abstract EN

Reproduction of most insects depends on nutrients accumulated during the larval stage.

Recent studies, however, highlight the fundamental importance of adult nutrition.

Feeding at the adult stage allows the intake of carbohydrate, lipids and amino acid rich solutions, which may have an effect on the species reproduction and population growth.

Fecundity, egg viability and adults longevity data were collected for adult Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders)(Lepidoptera: Gelichidiea) maintained on one of eight adult diets, these are distilled water, which was used as a control (T1), 20% sugar solution (T2), 20% honey solution (T3), 20% sugar solution + 3 drop of food oil (T4), 20% sugar solution + 10% yeast (T5), 20% sugar solution + 5% yeast (T6), 20% sugar solution + 10% yeast + 3 drop of food oil (T7) and 20% sugar solution + 5% yeast + 3 drop of food oil (T8) at two concentrations.

The results indicated that moth performance was poor on honey (T3) or 10% yeast (T5) diets, best on oil diet (T4) and moderately on other diets (T2, T6, T7 and T8).

Consistently oil diet (T4) enabling the moths to live moderately (13.59 and 13.87 days for female and male, respectively), produce more eggs (118.92 egg/female) and had high reproductive capacity as the percentage of control (165.98%).

Also, they relatively inexpensive; thus, it can be considered good diets for maintaining laboratory colonies of these moths.

In conclusion, adult’s diet can play an essential role in egg production and in sustaining longevity of females.