Department of Entomology, Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar, Pusa (Samastipur)-848 125 (India).
The suitability of green gram + dew gram + sorghum leaf powder as principal base-ingredient to formulate an alternate artificial diet for mass rearing of Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) was further established on the basis of comparable damage to maize plant caused by larvae reared from either natural hosts maize and sorghum or the aforesaid artificial diet. The mean leaf injury score per plant on rating scale 1–9 varied from 6.85 to 8.33 and 3.70 to 5.15 in the first and second sets, respectively. The effect of decreased or increased amount of five constituents, viz., ascorbic acid, yeast powder, sorbic acid, formaldehyde and vitamin E was significantly pronounced in respect of biological parameters but did not manifest to the desired extent considering this important criterion to ultimately select the diet. In all the 11 diets including standard diet, the mean leaf injury score per plant varied from 2.40 to 4.18.
