Abstract
Culturing of mealybugs is essential to rear the natural enemies, particularly parasitoids and predators for use in the field. Biological control programmes of mealybug species have relied on sprouting potatoes, pumpkins and butternut for rearing of both mealybugs and their natural enemies. The ability to mass-rear the mealybugs is a vital step towards the culturing and colonisation of its natural enemies. An inexpensive mass-rearing technique and a nutritionally efficient but simple diet have to be developed for the mealybugs. The nutritional regime should be capable of producing and supporting great numbers of mealybugs at low cost. An important requirement for mass-rearing substrate is a long shelf life, which obviates the regular provision of fresh food. In this regard, butternut, pumpkins and sprout in potatoes have been found as suitable substrates for the mass-rearing of mealybugs.
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Mani, M., Shivaraju, C. (2016). Culturing of Mealybugs. In: Mani, M., Shivaraju, C. (eds) Mealybugs and their Management in Agricultural and Horticultural crops . Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2677-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2677-2_7
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