Lunalva Aurelio Pedroso Sallet¹ , Marcelo Araujo² , Rose Monnerat³

1 Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil;
2 Department of Agronomy, University of Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil;
3 Embrapa - Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, CP 02373, Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil
Author    Correspondence author
Bioscience Methods, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 6   doi: 10.5376/bm.2013.04.0006
Received: 26 Jul., 2013    Accepted: 30 Jul., 2013    Published: 31 Jul., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Alphitobius diaperinus is an insect from the order coleoptera, commonly known as the lesser mealworm, which has adapted well to poultry-sheds due to the availability of food and level of humidity they offer. These factors increase its reproductive capacity, causing significant losses for poultry farmers. The present study was carried out with the intention of establishing a protocol for settlement A. diaperinus in large numbers in the laboratory, with a view to supplying the insect for future research into their prospective use as the object of biological control strategies. For this experiment two different types of diet were used: diet 1 (rabbit-feed) and diet 2 (chicken-feed), both autoclaved. After sexing, ten repetitions with five couples were isolated in a transparent plastic receptacle with lid (capacity 500 mL) for each diet tested. The receptacles were kept in a room at temperature of 28℃±2℃, humidity of 80%±10% and light-phase of 14 hours, and were observed daily. All the data generated underwent statistical analysis, using Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance in the Sigma Stat program.

Lesser mealworm; poultry farming; insect pest