Abstract

A method developed in India for laboratory rearing of Dinoderus minutus, a pest of stored bamboo, on dried tapioca tuber is described. An increase in the beetle population of up to 10-fold was obtained on this diet within 60 days. Tapioca tuber was more suitable than reed or bamboo, on which the survival of the insect is known to be dependent on the starch content, and therefore unpredictable. In addition, it is easy to retrieve the insects from the comparatively soft tapioca medium for experimentalstudies