DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL LARVAL DIETS FOR WEST-INDIAN FRUIT-FLY (DIPTERA, TEPHRITIDAE)

Two artificial larval diets were developed for the West Indian fruit f ly Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart). One was a papaya diet containing tor ula yeast, corn flour, fresh papaya pulp, and sugar; this diet provide d essential nutrients needed for larval development and produced suffi cient numbers of flies for further testing. The other, a casein diet, included torula yeast, corn flour, casein, sugar, minerals, and vitami ns. The use of casein was a suitable replacement for papaya; pupal pro duction increased 1.5 times. We reared A. obliqua for 24 generations i n papaya diet and 39 generations in the casein diet without loss of fe cundity. Two other diets containing defatted soy flour or dehydrated p ea powder in place of casein, produced similar numbers of pupae as the papaya diet. Raw or stabilized wheat germ inhibited larval developmen t. When crude lipids were removed from wheat germ, recoveries of larva e, pupae, and adults were similar as in the casein diet. Addition of l ow amounts of Beck's salt mixture to casein diet increased adult recov ery compared with the control, but salt concentrations >0.1% significa ntly decreased recoveries of larvae, pupae, and adults. Addition of vi tamins to casein diet were not proven essential in the generation test ed.