Mass rearing of Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) adults for integrated pest management programmes

Experiment was conducted during 2009, in laboratory to evaluate substrate colour preference for egg laying of Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens). C. carnea male and female were paired and confined in glass chimneys as cages covered with different coloured cloth pieces such as white, green, black, brown, yellow and pink. Among all colours tested, females preferred black colour as a substrate for egg-laying and laid the highest (91.00%) eggs followed by green colour and lowest on brown colour. In another experiment the adults of C. carnea were reared in three types of cages, transparent Perspex cage, transparent glass cage and wooden cage in the laboratory conditions, to test the suitability of different cage types for better egg production and C. carnea culture management for mass production unit. The highest number of eggs (18.46%) drifted in wooden cage, whereas, lowest percentage of drifted eggs (3.71%) was observed in glass cage. Glass cages proved better than other types of cages, requiring minimum time from the point of sanitation. For adult rearing minimum time required for food provision was 2.40 min in glass cage followed by 3.00 min in Perspex cage. Much shorter (3.70 min) time was required for cleaning of glass cage than Perspex cage (4.60 min). Significantly less time (3.80 min) was required for egg harvesting from glass cage, than from other types of cages.