A Wheat Germ Medium for Rearing the Pink Bollworm1

Abstract

Composition of an artificial medium for laboratory cultures of the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saund.), is given. The medium has wheat germ meal as the primary constituent but also contains vitamin-free casein, sucrose, Wesson's salts, choline chloride, agar, sodium alginate, vitamins, and water. Growth and development on the pink bollworm on this diet approximated that reported for the insect in the field. The larval developmental period averaged 16.3 days; prepupae 2.2 days; and pupae 8.8 days. Pupae produced on this medium were slightly smaller than those collected from cotton bolls. Oviposition records indicated that females reared on the wheat germ medium would produce more eggs than field-collected moths. Records for several thousand insects indicated that an average of 81.5% of the larvae originally placed on the diet would grow into adults.