Synergy of Secondary Compounds in the Artificial Foods of the Last Instar of Hyphantria Cunea (Drury) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae)

Abstract

This study aims at putting forward the synergy of secondary compounds on total food consumption, the amount of pupal lipid and protein, weight of pupae, and development time in the last instar of Hyphantria cunea. A non-choice feeding experiment was applied with a total of 14 foods; one of them was the control food, 9 of them were prepared by adding different concentrations of tannic acid, gallic acid and p-coumaric acid (1, 3, 5% of dry weight) to the control food, 3 foods with 2 combinations prepared by adding 3% concentration tannic acid, gallic acid and p-coumaric acid, and 1 food with three combinations. The total food consumption of the foods with double combinations was different when compared to control food. The pupal weights of the larvae which were fed with food containing two combinations (tannic acid+ p-coumaric acid) and the ones fed with food containing three combinations (tannic acid + gallic acid + p-coumaric acid) were different from the ones in the control group. The pupal protein content in food containing triple combinations was lower than the control food. The pupal lipid content in food containing triple combinations was more than the control food. It was found that the development time increased as the tannic acid concentration of the food increased; on the contrary, the development time decreased as the gallic acid concentration of the food containing gallic acid increased.