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Small scale rearing of Black Soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) as a function of two different light sources

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Abstract

In this present study, different life-history attributes of Black Soldier fly (BSF) such as mating, oviposition activity, larval and adult weights, survival, etc. were investigated under the effect of two different light sources (Sunlight and Halogen light). The light exposure was for 9 h per day in both the experimental conditions. It was observed that sunlight exposure enhanced the mating and oviposition activity in adult females over halogen light. The total development time and days to first prepupa and adult fly emergence were also significantly different (p < 0.05). The egg hatchability also varied differently in halogen light (67%) and sunlight (92%) however, there was not any significant difference in the weights of larva (0.17 g), prepupa (0.14 g), pupa (0.12 g) and adult flies (0.05 g) in both the experimental conditions. The larval (87% and 89%) and prepupal (74% and 75%) survival rate also did not vary in both the treatments. Moreover, the overall physiological significance of the entire study has been dealt in detail in the full paper.

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The data obtained is available in the manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Director, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur for providing all the laboratory facilities and Head, CSIR-NEERI, Kolkata Zonal Centre to support publishing this research work (KRC No.- CSIR-NEERI/KRC/2021/DEC/KZC/2) .

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No funding was received for conducting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, 440 020, India

    Anshika Singh & Deepak Marathe

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201 002, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Anshika Singh, Deepak Marathe & Kanchan Kumari

  3. CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Kolkata Zonal Centre, Kolkata, 700 107, West Bengal, India

    Kanchan Kumari

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  1. Anshika Singh
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Correspondence to Kanchan Kumari.

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Singh, A., Marathe, D. & Kumari, K. Small scale rearing of Black Soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) as a function of two different light sources. Int J Trop Insect Sci 43, 1451–1462 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-023-01036-0

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