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Agar and Carrageenan as Cost-Effective Gelling Agents in Yeast-Reduced Artificial Diets for Mass-Rearing Fruit Flies and Their Parasitoids.

ABSTRACT: The development of cost-effective diets for mass-rearing fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their parasitoids in pest control programs based on the Sterile Insect Technique is a high priority worldwide. To this end, we tested carrageenan, agar, gelatin and two types of pregelatinized corn starches as gelling agents at varying percentages in a yeast-reduced liquid larval diet for rearing the Mexfly, Anastrepha ludens. Only diets with 0.234% (w/w) agar or 0.424% carrageenan were identified as diets with potential for mass-rearing A. ludens in terms of the number of pupae recovered from the diet, pupal weight, adult emergence, flight ability and diet cost. Comparative experiments showed that yeast-reduced agar and carrageenan gel diets produced heavier pupae and higher proportions of flying adults than the standard mass-rearing diet. The gel-agar and mass-rearing diets produced more pupae than the gel-carrageenan diet, but the latter produced more suitable larvae as hosts for rearing of Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) females, a widely used fruit fly biocontrol agent. Yeast-reduced agar and carrageenan gel diets could represent cost-effective fruit fly mass-rearing diets if a practical system for gel diet preparation and dispensation at fruit fly mass-rearing facilities is developed.

SUBMITTER: Pascacio-Villafan C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7073888 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Agar and Carrageenan as Cost-Effective Gelling Agents in Yeast-Reduced Artificial Diets for Mass-Rearing Fruit Flies and Their Parasitoids.

Pascacio-Villafán Carlos C Guillén Larissa L Aluja Martín M

Insects 20200218 2

The development of cost-effective diets for mass-rearing fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their parasitoids in pest control programs based on the Sterile Insect Technique is a high priority worldwide. To this end, we tested carrageenan, agar, gelatin and two types of pregelatinized corn starches as gelling agents at varying percentages in a yeast-reduced liquid larval diet for rearing the Mexfly, Anastrepha ludens. Only diets with 0.234% (w/w) agar or 0.424% carrageena ...[more]

PMID: 32085554

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Dataset Information

Agar and Carrageenan as Cost-Effective Gelling Agents in Yeast-Reduced Artificial Diets for Mass-Rearing Fruit Flies and Their Parasitoids.

Publications

Agar and Carrageenan as Cost-Effective Gelling Agents in Yeast-Reduced Artificial Diets for Mass-Rearing Fruit Flies and Their Parasitoids.

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