The effects of larval diet on adult life-history traits of the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae)

Abstract

Larvae of Hermetia illucens feed on different types of decomposing organic matter and their development depends on the quality and quantity of food ingested. In this study the effect of three artificial diets was analyzed, namely hen feed, meat meal and a mixture of these two diets. The effects of diet on ovarian development, size, mortality, duration of the larval and pupal stages and sex ratio were studied. Results indicate that the meat meal diet was the worst of the three diets in terms of percentage mortality and duration of the larval and pupal stages. We conclude that food ingested by the black soldier fly larvae determines both the physiological and morphological development of the adults.This study was funded by a contract between the company Flysoil S.L. and the University of Alicante (FLYSOIL 2-09I), the scholarship sub-programme Torres Quevedo 2010–2012 (Ministry of Innovation and Science 2012) and partially by the projects GRE09-27 (University of Alicante) and GV/2011/039 (Generalitat Valenciana)