Improved artificial diets for laboratory rearing of the spiny bollworm, Earias insulana (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae)

Abstract Modifications were made in a diet reported in the literature for rearing the spiny bollworm, Earias insulana (Boisduval), a major pest of cotton and okra, in India, with an objective of obtaining reproductively competent adults. Out of the six diets evaluated, two modified diets were found to be nutritionally adequate to produce adults with a satisfactory reproductive performance (about 165 eggs per female with more than 90% viability). These two diets contained maize semolina, wheat bran, wheat germ oil, brewer's yeast, salt mixture, ascorbic acid, agar and distilled water in prescribed proportions. In addition to these ingredients one diet contained soybean powder and vitamin mixture, whereas the other contained decorticated glandless‐cotton seed powder. Data are presented on the development and reproductive performance of the insects reared on these two diets for three successive generations.