A simple larval diet for population studies on the blowfly Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Abstract. 1 A simple artificial diet was devised for larvae of Lucilia sericata Meigen. 2 A basic diet of 20 g/1 agar with 20% horse blood and added yeast sustained normal growth and development, as compared with a lamb meat control. 3 When yeast was added to the blood agar diet at 50 gp>1, both peak and final larval weights were increased by 25–50% at higher larval densities (2–8 larvae/g diet) and the hatchling‐adult development period was reduced by about 3 days. 4 No adult insects emerged on an agar‐yeast diet without blood. Increasing the concentration of blood from 10% to 20% increased adult weight at emergence by 50%, though developmental period was not significantly affected. 5 Increasing larval density significantly reduced the weights of pupae and emergent adults (by up to 50%), both on the blood‐agar‐yeast diet and the lamb meat control. Percentage survival fell from 80–90% to below 10% on the blood‐agar‐yeast diet at the highest densities of 4 or 8 larvae/g diet, though survival on lamb was not significantly affected by density.