| Popis: |
Mass production of lacewings is still a bottleneck for applied biological control and for biofactories producing natural enemies, due to the difficulties of large-scale production and the cost of the undertaking and the production of their alternative prey. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the viability of an alternative artificial diet to rearing of Ceraeochrysa cincta (Schneider, 1851) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae). Three treatments were analyzed for this purpose, consisting of: 1) natural diet - eggs of Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton, 1866) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), 2) artificial diet honey + beer yeast (1:1) and 3) natural diet (1) + artificial diet (2), and were offered to the larval stage of the predator. The biological parameters of C. cincta evaluated where: duration of larval, pupal and adult phases; pupal weight; pupal viability; sex ratio; pre-oviposition and oviposition periods and number of eggs per female. Were obtained adults only in the treatments 1 and 3 and, in the treatment 2 no insect reached the pupal stage. The results obtained demonstrated that the artificial diet, when offered in isolation, causes significant differences in the duration of the larval period, especially in the 3rd instar, and in the weight of the pupae, with the other similar parameters in the treatments, but can serve as a nutritional supplement. |
