Eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth (MFM) are widely used for rearing biocontrol agents Understanding how nutritional stress and larval crowding affect MFM fitness is essential to the development of an optimal production programme Such knowledge could also help lead to novel management strategies because it is an important storage pest The development survival and reproductive output of MFM under five densities (50 100 200 400 and 800 larvae reared on 50 g of diet) were examined As larval density increased the larval developmental period significantly increased from 278 to 337 days and the larval survival rate and resulting females fecundity significantly decreased from 776 to 476 and 3268 to 1326 eggs respectively (P

Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella is a cosmopolitan pest of stored products and its eggs are widely used to rear parasitoids and predators for biological control programmes This experiment investigated how larval population density affected the survival rate and reproductive output of this species under four rearing densities (1 larva per 2 g food per vial; or 100 500 or 1000 larvae per 50 g food per jar) The survival rate and reproductive output significantly decreased (P

The European earwig Forficula auricularia L is an important predator of aphids and scales in New Zealand apple orchards To determine whether European earwig acted as a biological control agent of apple leafcurling midge (ALCM) Dasineura mali Kieffer their prey searching and feeding activity was investigated in the field and laboratory In the field in January earwigs started to leave their shelters at about 920 pm to search for ALCM larvae and returned to the shelters before 535 am with a searching peak on apple shoots infested by ALCM larvae between 1030 pm and 130 am Significantly more ALCM infested shoots and leaves were bitten by earwigs on trees where shelters trapped earwigs than on those where shelters did not trap any earwigs In the laboratory earwigs mainly fed in the first 2 hours after lightoff and each adult consumed an average of 6770 318 mature ALCM larvae during the scotophase (8 h) Heavier earwigs consumed significantly more ALCM larvae than light ones