Effects of artificial diet on the biological characteristics of the ladybeetle Coccinella septempunctata.

The ladybeetle Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus is an important natural enemy of aphids, scale insects, whitefly, and lepidopteran larvae. Mass rearing of this natural enemy is limited due to the lack of effective artificial feed. We compared the biological performance of C. septempunctata, reared on four artificial diets (A, B, C, and D), while the pea aphid Aphis craccivora served as a control treatment (CK). Results showed that the developmental time before emergence ranked from short to long follow as: CK (12.30d)<D (16.66d)<A (17.38d)<C (17.54d)<B (18.57d). The eclosion rate of larvae ranked from high to low follow as: CK (90.00%) > C (87.50%) = D (87.50%) > B (80.00%) > A (57.50%), and new adult weight from high to low follow as: CK (339.50 g*0.0001) > A (205.33 g*0.0001) > D (197.68 g*0.0001) > B (174.89 g*0.0001) > C (169.46 g*0.0001). The ratios of fecundity between the experimental group and the control group were 80.46% (A), 39.24% (B), 45.31% (C), and 53.02% (D). The hatch rates were 59.50% (A), 46.00% (B), 57.65% (C), 54.50% (D), and 53.88% (CK). The mortality of C. septempunctata adults fed on a combined artificial diet was higher than those fed on the control diet. Compared to the control diet, C. septempunctata did not significantly reduce oviposition when fed on artificial diet A. Therefore, diet A can be used in mass‐rearing of C. septempunctata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]