Pg. 32-35 Rearing sustainable laboratory cultures of litchi moth, Cryptophlebia peltastica (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

The principal objective was to develop a mass-rearing technique for sustainable cost-effective cultures of litchi moth, Cryptophlebia peltastica, for cold storage analysis trials. Infected fruit from litchi orchards and alternate host plants were collected on three field trips and were taken to Grahamstown using three forms of transport medium: on artificial diets, in situ in litchi pips, and in situ in pods and twigs collected from Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima L. Sw.) plants. A total of 1 697 C. peltastica larvae were collected from over 8 500 individual fruit, pods and twigs; the rate of return was 20% of the apparently infested host plant material. Larvae were transferred to a Constant Environment (CE) room and reared on artificial diet to pupal stage. Emerging adults were placed in mating and oviposition cages from where eggs, in excess of 1 445 to date, have been transferred to jars containing artificial diet. A total of 50 C. peltastica adults have eclosed thus far, completing the first laboratory-reared generation of this project. During the course of this project insufficient numbers of larvae were collected to develop a fully sustainable mass-culture. The number of larvae collected from apparently infested fruit was extremely low, thereby necessitating repeated collection of plant material from a range of host plants.