Dietary requirements for mass rearing of natural enemies for use in biological control.
1986
Hagens K.S.
The success of biological control by augmentation of natural enemies depended largely upon the ability to economically mass culture predators, parasitoids and pathogens. The ideal goal was to culture natural enemies directly on artificial diets. Such an approach alleviated the necessity of culturing organisms lower in the food chain. Since the nutritional requirements of microbials multicellular organisms and the potential for genetic engineering was greater in Protista, there will soon become available many new microbial insecticides, mycoparasites, mycoherbicides and antagonists of plant pathogens to meet the demand for more selective methods of controlling tartet pests. There were virtually no multicellular natural enemies being mass-reared directly on artificial diets except for some parasitic nematodes. Basically the qualitative nutritional requirements for growth and development of entomophagous insects were similar to phytophagous insects and differ from vertebrates in requiring a sterol, yet only a few predatory and parasitic insects had been cultured on artificial diets. Some of the reasons for the lack of success of mass rearing entomophagous insects directly on artificial diets were discussed. The greatest advance in mass rearing entomophagous insects had been the utilization of hosts and prey that were mass cultured on artificial media or on unnatural hosts that were cheaply produced. Examples of these insect rearing associations were given. Not only were basic nutritional requirements important in these systems but also specific kairomones had to be present to satisfy all the dietary requirements for the production of effective natural enemies.
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