Nutritional efficiency of four dehydrated and powdered tapioca puddings for Tribolium confusum (duVal) was assayed by studying growth, survival and fecundity of the confused flour beetle on these diets.
The common pudding inflicted about 50% mortality and caused over three-fold growth retardation in the larvae. The longevity and fecundity of the adults also were significantly reduced (P < 0.01). On the other three test puddings which contained less vitamins and more fat or carbohydrate than the common pudding, growth was even more severely retarded, and only 9% of the larvae became adults of doubtful reproductive ability. Results obtained from puddings supplemented with vitamins, or made with synthetic milk in which vitamin and fat levels were manipulated, suggest that the nutritional inadequacy of the four test puddings was mainly due to low vitamin and high fat contents.
The results demonstrate the practicality of inducing ‘self-protection’ against insect pests in certain types of food products without seriously affecting their acceptability by man.
