Laboratory evaluation, storability and economics of an artificial diet for rearing Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

An artificial diet successfully used for several seasons for rearing Chilo partellus at the Project Directorate of Biological Control, Bangalore was evaluated systematically up to five generations. The diet was compounded with chickpea flour (100 g), yeast tablets (10 g), maize leaf powder (10 g), casein (30 g), ascorbic acid (3 g), sorbic acid (1 g), salt mixture No. 2 (1.5 g), multivitaplex capsules (2 Nos.), methyl parahydroxy benzoate (2 g), streptomycin sulphate (0.25 g), agar-agar (10 g), formalin (2 ml), and distilled water (700 ml). At the end of three generations of rearing on this diet, the larval survival was 75.6%. Also, the weight of male pupa (0.055 g), female pupa (0.160 g) and mean fecundity per female (232.33) were recorded. The diet could be stored at 5° ± 1°C even up to ten days with no effect on the quality of the insects reared on the stored diet. The cost of rearing a single pupa on the above diet was Re. 0.18.