Evaluation of Wood and Cellulosic Materials as Fillers in Artificial Diets for Lyctus africanus Lesne (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae)

Abstract

We studied the usefulness of wood- and cellulose-based diets for L. africanus Lesne. Three diets were prepared which differed on the base ingredients; wood particles (Diet 1), cellulose powder (Diet 2), and alpha-cellulose (Diet 3). The diets were provided to adult L. africanus and the number of larvae, as well as the number of adults that emerged sex ratio, and body weight of the progeny was determined. Findings indicated similar results for the number of larvae, sex ratio and body weight of the emerged L. africanus fed on each diet. However, the number of adult produced by L. africanus on Diet 3 was significantly lower. The results indicate that the amount of vital nutrients is not the only important factor in selecting a suitable diet for L. africanus because the filler used in artificial diets influences the beetles overall population growth. For the population upon which the diets were tested, Diet 1 and Diet 2 could be utilized to rear beetles in the laboratory.

Influence of Age and Mating Status on Pheromone Production in a Powderpost Beetle Lyctus africanus (Coleoptera: Lyctinae)

“…A 1984 report on other beetle species in the Bostrichidae family stated that beetles with lifespans longer than 1 month require feeding for reproduction [ 25 ]. As for L. africanus , the lifecycle of beetles is around 2.5 months with a suitable diet for producing a new generation after the introduction of the artificial diet [ 19 ]. As mentioned earlier, L. africanus adults survived longer in the unstarved condition.…”

“…Adult L. africanus beetles were cultured in a mixture of solid wood-based artificial diet [ 18 , 19 ] consisting of dried yeast (24%, Asahi Food and Health Care Co., Ltd., Sumida-ku, Tokyo, Japan), starch (50%, Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan), and lauan ( Shorea spp.) wood sawdust (26%).…”

Structural basis of lignocellulose deconstruction by the wood-feeding anobiid beetle Nicobium hirtum

“…The artificial diet consisted of 50% (w/w) starch, 24% (w/w) yeast extract, and 26% (w/w) Shorea sp. sawdust, and was originally designed to feed mass cultures of Lyctus species [20][21][22]. Each larva was placed in a hole in the center of the diet block and allowed to grow in an incubator maintained at 25 °C and 65% relative humidity.…”

“…We recorded larvae survival, the decrease in the mass of the lignocellulose diet, and the growth (change in body mass) of the larvae fed on three different lignocellulose diets, i.e., plain sapwood blocks of Japanese red pine (softwood) and Japanese beech (hardwood), and an artificial diet block consisting of Shorea (hardwood) sapwood sawdust, yeast extract, and starch. Our preliminary experiments indicated that this Shorea woodbased artificial diet, which was originally developed for feeding powder-post beetles (Lyctus species) in the laboratory [20][21][22], is suitable for the maintenance of N. hirtum larvae [19]. The survival rates of the larvae fed with the pine wood and the Shorea artificial diet were similarly high (> 80%), whereas that of the larvae fed with the beech wood diet was considerably lower (ca.…”