The Basic Food Requirements of Several Insects

Abstract

1. The method of breeding six different insect species on a ‘synthetic’ diet consisting of casein, starch or glucose, chloesterol, yeast, salts and water has been described, and the relative importance of the constituents, carbohydrates, sterols and yeast, has been analysed. 2. If the diet contains water-soluble yeast extract instead of whole yeast, it becomes deficient in sterols and another factor contained in the insoluble fraction of yeast. 3. Some of the insects under investigations require carbohydrates and others not. The presence or absence of carbohydrates is shown to be a determining factor in the distribution of insects on different foods. 4. The composition of the ‘synthetic’ diet is compared with that of similar diets devised for similar purposes by other authors.