author(s)
Arun Kumar KM, VJ Tambe, Syed Khadeeru Rehaman, BN Choudhuri and KD Thakur

abstract
Nine experimental dietary formulations (T1-T9) were prepared which composed of rice, wheat, sorghum, rice + groundnut, wheat + groundnut, sorghum + groundnut, rice + sesamum, wheat + sesamum and sorghum + sesamum as base diet to rear and maintain the rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica under laboratory conditions. All the diets were fortified with baker’s yeast @ 5 g, wettable sulphur @ 5 g, and Streptomycin sulphate @ 50 mg. The parameters studied in the present work were eggs hatching percentage, incubation period, larval period, pupation percentage, pupation period, total developmental period, percent adult moth emergence, percent male and female moth emergence, male and female longevity and fecundity. The Diet T6 (sorghum 1000 g + groundnut 50 g) was found to outperform other dietary formulations as it resulted in lowest larval period (30.33 days), lowest pupation period (7 days), lowest total development period (47.33 days), highest adult emergence (82%), highest adult female emergence (52.11 days), highest male longevity (8.33 days), highest female longevity (9.67 days) and highest fecundity (312.33). The obtained results provide suitable diets for mass rearing, thus contributing significantly for the large scale production of C. cephalonica.