Abstract
REARING insects on artificial or synthetic media has attracted the attention of numerous workers (cf. Trager1), because success would permit detailed investigation of nutritive requirements or would permit aseptic rearing of stocks for various medical or toxicological purposes. Methods hitherto employed have been most successful with larvæ such as dipterous maggots, which normally feed in a semi-fluid medium, or with cereal insects, which normally feed on a dry substrate. Difficulties have arisen when attempts were made to rear phytophagous insects, and, while some workers have reared older instars of such species on media, Bottger2 seems to have been the first to carry a phytophagous insect, the European corn borer, through its entire feeding period on a purely artificial diet. Recent work in this Laboratory has led to the development of artificial media on which it has been possible to rear some phytophagous lepidopterous larvæ through all feeding instars. The method is reported here for use by interested workers in related fields.
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References
Trager, W., Biol. Rev., 22, 148 (1947).
Bottger, G. T., J. Agric. Res., 65, 493 (1942).
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WELLINGTON, E. Artificial Media for Rearing some Phytophagous Lepidoptera. Nature 163, 574 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163574a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163574a0
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