Influence of Diet on Development and Survival of Thanatophilus rugosus (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

Abstract

This study examined the effects of various diets on the development time and survival of the carrion beetle Thanatophilus rugosus (Fabricius, 1775). We attempted to find the best diet for rearing the species in laboratory conditions for entomological research and forensic purposes, and to further understand its feeding habits. The larval stages were monitored while feeding on three types of meat under a constant temperature. We discovered that the shortest development time in total was achieved in larvae fed with pork liver, followed closely by pork muscle. The longest development and lowest survival rates were observed when introducing a chicken diet. We were also able to identify specific stages during which the diet significantly affected the development.

Diet Impact on the Development and Survival of Oiceoptoma thoracicum (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

“…The larvae were able to finish their development on all tested diets with a similar development time, even though there was variability in the nutritional composition of the treatments. This contradicts our previous experiment on the larvae of Thanatophilus rugosus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Coleoptera: Silphidae) ( Qubaiová et al 2021 ), where the diet directly influenced the development time; the fastest development was observed in larvae fed with pork liver closely followed by pork muscle, and the longest development was noted in chicken muscle. The average development time for O. thoracicum across all diet treatments we tested was 32.6 d, which was close to Heymons and von Lengerken (1931) study; average of 34.2 d at the mean temperature of 19.25°C, even though their methodology was very simplified.…”

“…Around 100 adults were identified and sexed [using the identification key of Jakubec et al (2018) ] and transferred to the laboratory at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, where they were placed inside one large breeding box (Hagen Exo Terra Faunarium large 20 L, dimensions 37 × 22 × 24.5 cm). We followed a methodology comparable to our previous work ( Qubaiová et al 2021 ). The breeding box contained at least 13 cm of gardening soil, and a small piece of moss, collected from the gathering locality, to sustain humidity and mimic the forest habitat.…”

“…This effect should not be ignored especially when rearing the larval stages of forensically relevant species. As discrepancies in the rearing methodologies, using diets from different animal species and tissues, can lead to failures in breeding these species and, more importantly, to significantly different developmental models ( Byrd and Tomberlin 2019 , Qubaiová et al 2021 ).…”

“…Most diet studies involving forensically important insects were performed on Diptera (e.g., Thyssen et al 2014 , Bernhardt et al 2017 , Bambaradeniya et al 2019 , Rogers et al 2021 ), yet current areas of research gradually include necrophagous beetles as well (e.g., Frątczak-Łagiewska et al 2020 , Jakubec et al 2021 , Qubaiová et al 2021 ). The primary interest resides in their longer life cycle, which can sequentially extend the PMI estimation period.…”

Effects of Host Plant and Insect Generation on Shaping of the Gut Microbiota in the Rice Leaffolder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis

“…Diet is one of the important factors for insect development ( Karley et al, 2002 ; Qubaiová et al, 2021 ), and it also plays an important role in shaping insect phenotypes and gut microbial communities ( Colman et al, 2012 ; Xu et al, 2019 ; Luo et al, 2021 ; Mason et al, 2021 ). Host diet could influence the diversity, structure, or composition of the gut in many insects ( Strano et al, 2018 ; Lü et al, 2019 ; Leite-Mondin et al, 2021 ; Yuan et al, 2021 ).…”