The first attempt to rear olive leaf moth [(Palpita unionalis (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)] on artificial diet

Abstract

The olive leaf moth, Palpita unionalis (Hübner) (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae) is an important pest in olive orchards. To facilitate planning of pest management strategies, it is important to develop an artifical diet for laboratory rearing. Several artifical diets previously developed to rear lepidopteran larvae were tested in this study. The artifical diet developed for Spodoptera spp. based on pinto bean, wheat germ and torula yeast was the most adequate diet to rear P. unionalis among the diets tested. Addition of host plant material in the artificial diet showed no positive effect on larval growth and survival. The larval and pupal recovery was similar for artificial diets as well as for its natural food, olive leaves. The diet is nutritionally suitable to rear olive leaf moth in the laboratory.