Morphological and biological characteristics of Galleria mellonella L. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) reared on different artificial diets

The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella L.) is a common insect used as alternative host for mass rearing and research of natural enemies. Finding appropriate artificial diets can aid in increasing the efficiency of mass rearing. The study evaluated three different artificial diets by determining some biological and morphological characteristics of greater wax moths in laboratory of Plant Protection Department, Agronomy Faculty, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The experimental results showed that the artificial diet CT2 was the most effective one of the three treatments. Its larval stage was shortest, with an average of 27.6 ± 4.2 days. The greater wax moth larvae reared on CT2 grew fast and had large size. Over a period of 20 - 30 days of age, the length and width of greater wax moth larvae ranged from 11.9 ± 5.2 to 16.3 ± 6.2 mm and 2.7 ± 1.4 to 3.9 ± 1.8 mm, respectively. The female greater wax moths laid 819.0 ± 175.5 to 1,008.1 ± 354.6 eggs on average. When greater wax moths were reared on three different artificial diets, there was no difference in fecundity