A year-round rearing system for laboratory colonies of the sweet potato hornworm, Agrius convolvuli.
1994
Kiguchi K. | Shimoda M. | Tanaka Y. | Kiuchi M. | Takeda S.
The sweet-potato hornworm, Agrius convolvuli, is considered to be a good experimental insect for comparative studies on other large lepidopterans, such as tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, and the silkworm, Bombyx mori. For the use of A. convolvuli as an experimental animal, we developed a year-round rearing system using artificial diets. The system consisted of 4 subsystems for the following purposes: for successive maintenance of the colonies, for long-term preservation, for small scale experiments and for larger scale experiments. Individual reading method was suitable not only for small scale experiments, but also for the maintenance of the colonies. Group rearing method enabled to expand the rearing scale whenever required. Through the control of the temperature and photoperiod during the larval development, diapause pupae were obtained for long-term preservation to secure colonies from the possibility of serious damage associated with various diseases. Details of these procedures were described along with the life cycle under the rearing system. At present, about 1,000-3,000 eggs can be obtained every morning, and 100-500 hatched larvae are fed on a diet every day except on weekends and holidays, so that we can use any stages from egg to the adult any time throughout the year for conducting research.
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