title: 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/l 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 g/l, 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pure and Applied Zoology, University of Reading, White Whiteknights.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Daniels
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Simkiss
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004175:Diptera / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D005298:Fertility; D007814:Larva / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology