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Bioassays for Measuring Quality of Insect Food

  • Chapter
Insect-Plant Interactions

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Experimental Entomology ((SSEXP))

Abstract

Measurement of food quality requires evaluation of the effects of a diet on physiological processes that maximize progeny production and survival, the key parameters of fitness (Williams, 1966). Slansky (1982) suggested that the amount, rate, and quality of food consumed by larvae affected growth rate, developmental time, final body weight, movement, and survival. Amount, rate, and quality of food for adults influence fecundity, longevity, movement, and competitive ability. Larval food quality may additionally affect pupal and adult phenotypic characteristics. Obvious effects of inadequate larval diets are pupal distortions and wing malformations in the imago. For example, such effects characterize the toxicity of L-canavanine to Manduca sexta L., the tobacco hornworm (Rosenthal and Dahlman, 1975).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Illinois Natural History Survey and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61801, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    Marcos Kogan

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  1. Marcos Kogan
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  1. Pesticide Research Center, Michigan State University, 48824, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    James R. Miller

  2. Department of Entomology, University of California, 92521, Riverside, California, USA

    Thomas A. Miller

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Kogan, M. (1986). Bioassays for Measuring Quality of Insect Food. In: Miller, J.R., Miller, T.A. (eds) Insect-Plant Interactions. Springer Series in Experimental Entomology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4910-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4910-8_6

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