Nutrition of the European Corn Borer, Ostrinia nubilalis1. VI. A Larval Rearing Medium without Crude Plant Fractions2

A meridic dietary medium containing no foliage, wheat germ, or other crude plant fractions has been developed. This medium appears to be completely satisfactory for continuous culturing of laboratory populations of Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner). Omission of plant materials from the rearing medium was made possible by the development of a simplified, balanced mineral salt mixture. Because of inorganic contaminants contained in other organic constituents of the medium, the insect's requirement for individual inorganic elements could not be determined with acceptable accuracy.