Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Animal cell – per se ; composition thereof; process of... – Insect cell – per se
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-24
2003-01-14
Tate, Christopher R. (Department: 1651)
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Animal cell, per se ; composition thereof; process of...
Insect cell, per se
C435S001100, C435S390000, C424S581000, C424S725000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06506597
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improved artificial diets or growth media for rearing arthropods, including zoophagous arthropods and phytophagous arthropods including facultatively zoophagous phytophages. The growth media of the invention are suitable for mass production of these insects at a reasonable cost for uses including as biological control agents.
2. Description of the Art
The phylum Arthropoda includes insects and arachnids. Within this phylum are zoophagous arthropods (those that eat animal materials), phytophagous arthropods (plant-eating arthropods), and facultatively entomophagous phytophages (plant-eating arthropods that display some animal material consumption in addition to eating plants).
In the United States and throughout the world, the application of synthetic chemical insecticides is the primary method of controlling arthropod pests of many agricultural commodities, including food, fiber, and ornamental crops. However, there is an increasing interest in reducing the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and to make agriculture more sustainable. Biological control is recognized as the best alternative to the use of chemical insecticides for controlling these pests.
Use of beneficial arthropod predators and parasites for biological control on a large scale as an alternative to pesticides depends on the ability to mass produce large quantities of viable and biologically fit arthropods at a reasonable cost. However, rearing of beneficial arthropods on their natural hosts/prey or on unnatural factitious hosts is too expensive to allow large scale use of beneficial arthropods in commercial agriculture. Accordingly, artificial diets or growth media are required for mass production at reasonable cost.
The phylum also includes destructive arthropods. For example, the western tarnished plant bug,
Lygus hesperus
Knight (Hemiptera: Miridae) and tarnished plant bug,
Lygus lineolaris
(Palisot de Beauvois) are very destructive pests, and their economic impact spans several cropping systems in North America (Hedlund and Graham, USDA Technical Bulletin ARS-64, 1987). Their impact is amplified by their remarkable ability to become resistant to pesticides and by their extremely broad host range (Hedlund and Graham, supra). Therefore, potential alternatives to conventional pesticides to control these pests have become very important. Such alternatives include development of biological control, biorational chemicals, plant breeding, sterile insect release, and genetic engineering. Development of management strategies based on these approaches would depend upon rearing systems that permit medium to large scale rearing of arthropod pests. A major component necessary for such rearing includes an inexpensive, high quality artificial diet that can be used to rear thousands to millions of the targeted pest (Cohen et al. 1999,
Biocontrol News and Information,
(accepted June, 1999); Nordlund,
Biocontrol News and Information
17(2):35-44,1999; Nordlund and Greenberg,
Biocontrol News and Information
4:45-50,1994).
A liquid diet for rearing
Lygus hesperus
which includes whole raw eggs was described by J. W. Debolt,
Annals of the Entomological Society of America
75:119-122 (1982). The diet has been used successfully in rearing
L. hesperus
that were used for rearing both egg and nymphal parasitoids (Debolt,
U.S. Dept. Agric. Res. Serv.
(ARS-64), pages 82-87, 1987; Debolt,
Entomol. Exp. Appl.
50:87-95, 1989). S. A. Hassan and K. S. Hagen,
Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Entomologie,
86:315-320 (1978) describe liquid diets for rearing lacewings,
Chrysopa rufilabris
Stephens, larvae. Semi-solid meat-based artificial diets have been described for rearing
Geocoris punctipes
(Say) in publications by A. C. Cohen,
Journal of Economic Entomology,
78:1173-1175 (1985); A. C. Cohen and N. M. Urias,
The Southwestern Entomologist,
11:171-176 (1986); and A. C. Cohen and R. T. Staten in
Applications of Genetics to Arthropods of Biological Control Significance,
Eds. S. K. Narang et al., CRC Press, Inc., Chapter 7, pp. 121-132 (1994)). De Clercq et al. (
Entomophaga
37:149-157 (1992)) describe an artificial insect diet for rearing the predatory stinkbugs
Podisus maculiventris
and
Podisus sagitta
using the meat-based diet of Cohen (1985) with added fresh (raw, liquid) egg yolk. Saavedra et al. (
MedFac Landbouww Univ Gent
61(3a):767-772 (1996) describe an artificial insect diet for
Podisus nigrispinus
based on the bovine meat diet developed by Cohen (1985, supra) having added bee's honey, brewer's yeast, fresh egg yolk, and Wesson's salt. An artificial meat paste-based diet containing cooked whole egg, which has been found suitable for mass rearing entomophages (predatory arthropods and parasitic insects) including big-eyed bugs,
Geocoris punctipes,
and lacewings,
Chrysoperla rufilabris,
has been described (A. C. Cohen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,834,177). Use of this meat paste-cooked egg diet was also found useful as a supplement for artificial diets for phytophagous pests that are known to supplement their plant-eating habits with some insect consumption (A. C. Cohen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,271).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to improved artificial diets or growth media which are suitable for rearing large numbers of viable and biologically fit arthropods, including zoophagous arthropods and phytophagous arthropods, including facultatively zoophagous arthropods. The diets of the invention are free of insect components and meat products such as meat paste. Because the diets of the invention lack both insect components and meat products (such as meat paste), it was unexpected that they could be used so successfully to produce predatory arthropods and facultatively zoophagous phytophages. Prior art suggests that predatory and parasitic insects and mites require real arthropods or parts from arthropods or at least vertebrate-derived meat products in their immature stages of development.
In a first embodiment, the artificial growth medium is composed of a mixture of cooked egg, liquid, and carbohydrate source. Optional ingredients may be included as described in detail below and as illustrated in the examples. Preferably, the growth medium mixture is sufficiently blended so that the nutrients are substantially compositionally uniformly distributed. This diet is particularly suitable for providing nutrients in amounts and proportions effective to support growth of zoophagous arthropods.
In a second embodiment, the artificial growth medium is composed of a plant-based diet which includes cooked egg yolk or cooked whole egg. Optional ingredients may be included as described in detail below and as illustrated in the examples. This diet is particularly suitable for providing nutrients in amounts and proportions effective to support growth of phytophagous arthropods, including facultatively zoophagous phytophages.
In a third embodiment, the growth medium of the first embodiment is used in combination with a plant-based diet which includes cooked egg yolk or cooked whole egg (growth medium of the second embodiment). Optional ingredients may be included as described in detail below and as illustrated in the examples. This diet is particularly suitable for providing nutrients in amounts and proportions effective to support growth of phytophagous arthropods, including facultatively zoophagous phytophages.
Because the diets of the three embodiments are devoid of both insect components and meat products (such as meat paste), they are less expensive to produce than previously developed comparable diets; simpler to prepare, and lend themselves more readily to prevention of microbial contamination than do previous diets, and thus find particular usefulness for the mass rearing of beneficial and destructive arthropods at a reasonable cost for subsequent uses, including as biological control agents.
Tests of the new diet of the first embodiment with larval green lacewings (
Chrysoperla rufilabris
)
Connor Margaret A.
Fado John D.
Flood Michele C.
Silverstein M. Howard
Tate Christopher R.
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