Nutrition of the European Corn Borer, Pyrausta Nubialis (Hbn.) I. Development of a Satisfactory Purified Diet for Larval Growth1

Abstract

Although rapid advances have been made in the study of insect nutrition during the past decade, the nutritional requirements of the great variety of insects which feed on living plant material has received little attention. The paucity of reports on attempts to rear phytophagous insects on either purified or synthetic diets may be due in part to the difficulties encountered in (1) maintaining reasonably aseptic culture conditions and (2) devising a medium which possesses a texture acceptable to an organism normally feeding on living plant parts.