The Effect of Natural Food Supplement in Artificial Diet of Adults Green Lacewing, (Chrysoperla carnea), on Some It's Biological Parameters Under Laboratory Conditions

In order to find out a better and cheaper artificial diet for mass rearing of common green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea, an experiment was conducted using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 4 replications and 5 observations. In this study were used three diets [a mixture of honey, yeast and distilled water (1:1:1), a mixture of honey, yeast plus extract of Angomois grain moth eggs (1:1:1) and a mixture of honey, yeast plus extract of Mediterranean flour moth eggs (1:1:1)]. Experiments were run at 14L:10D, 25±2 ºC and 60±5% RH on 7th generation adults. The effect of different diets was studied on biological parameters such as pre-oviposition, oviposition and post-oviposition periods, longevity of male and female, fecundity, average weight of one egg and egg hatchability. Results revealed that the mixture of honey, yeast and extract of Mediterranean flour moth eggs (1:1:1) showed the minimum pre-oviposition period (6.66±0.49 days) and longest oviposition period (28.57±1.09 days), longevity of male (45.73±0.89 days) and female (37.73±0.59 days), highest fecundity (795.0±23.05 eggs per female) and egg hatchability (84.98±2.82 %). Also the average weight of one egg laied by females fed on this diet obtained 0.069±0.00 mg that didn’t show significant difference (P≤0.05) with maximum observed amount (0.070±0.00 mg). So it is clear that the diet contains honey, yeast and extract of Mediterranean flour moth eggs is the best.