Artificial diets used in laboratory rearing of the European grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae).

The larval nutrition of the grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, is determinant for its fitness; the amount and quality of the food ingested by larvae strongly influence the insect growth and reproduction. Utilizing appropriate artificial diets is a critical step in establishing a laboratory rearing colony. Generally, two types of diets are used in grapevine moth lab rearing, diets that stay moist and soft (agar-based diets) and those that dry out and harden with time (non-agar-based diets). Agar-based diets are satisfactory for producing small quantities of insects in small food containers, but with large containers, difficulties may occur. The relatively high cost of agar is another reason that stimulated the search for less expensive binders. To the contrary, non-agar based diets are generally used when large numbers of insects are required and where cost becomes a critical factor. In addition, many general-purpose diets (with or without agar) are used for rearing this insect. The selection of a particular diet, however, is a personal decision that should be based on the quality of the produced insects and the diet suitability for the rearing purpose. This paper discusses the artificial diets used by researchers for Lobesia botrana laboratory rearing.