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Adequacy of Drosophila melanogaster as prey for the development and reproduction of Coleomegilla maculata

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Abstract

Factitious prey are preferentially used to rear lady beetles in the laboratory in lieu of natural prey with an aim towards facilitating and lowering the cost of producing these predators. We tested the hypothesis that live dipteran larvae of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (factitious prey) meet the nutritional requirements of the coleopteran Coleomegilla maculata and can substitute for its natural aphid prey [Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach)]. The biological cycle of C. maculata was faster and the immature stages suffered a lower rate of mortality when fed D. melanogaster larvae rather than when fed L. erysimi. The factitious prey resulted in improved reproductive attributes for C. maculata, with the exception of fecundity. The N content was the same for both prey types, but the dipteran larvae had a higher C content, water content and C:N ratio than the aphids. The conclusion of this study is that D. melanogaster larvae are adequate factitious prey for the development and reproduction of C. maculata under laboratory conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES), for the master of science scholarships awarded to the first and second authors, and the laboratory technician Caroline Rosa Cabral Ferreira for maintaining our C. maculata and D. melanogaster colonies. Thanks to Prof Aurino Florencio de Lima (Entomology and Phytopathology Department, UFRRJ, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil) for identifying the aphid. Additionally, we thank Dr Robert M. Boddey (Embrapa Agrobiologia, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil) for the use of the C:N soil analyzer and for helping us interpret the data. This study was financed in part by CAPES—Finance Code 001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Fitossanidade e Biotecnologia Aplicada (PPGFBA), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro – UFRRJ, Rodovia BR 465, Km 7 Bairro: UFRRJ, Seropédica, RJ, CEP 23897-000, Brazil

    Halina Schultz & Eduardo da Silva

  2. Departamento de Entomologia e Fitopatologia, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Rodovia BR 465, Km 7 Bairro: UFRRJ, Seropédica, RJ, CEP 23897-000, Brazil

    Elen de Lima Aguiar-Menezes, André Luis Santos Resende & Ana Rafaela Moreira da Silva

  3. Embrapa Agrobiologia, Rodovia BR 465, Km 7 Bairro: Ecologia, Seropédica, RJ, CEP 23891-000, Brazil

    Janaina Ribeiro Costa Rouws

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  1. Halina Schultz
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  2. Eduardo da Silva
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  3. Elen de Lima Aguiar-Menezes
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  4. André Luis Santos Resende
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  5. Janaina Ribeiro Costa Rouws
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Correspondence to Elen de Lima Aguiar-Menezes.

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Schultz, H., da Silva, E., de Lima Aguiar-Menezes, E. et al. Adequacy of Drosophila melanogaster as prey for the development and reproduction of Coleomegilla maculata. BioControl 64, 43–54 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-018-09912-2

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