Growth and development of ladybird beetle Coccinella septempunctata L. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), on plant and animal based protein diets

Different protein sources from plant and animal origin viz., soybean flour (SF-AD) and soaked soybean (SS-AD), bee pollen (BP-AD), honey bee drone larvae (DL-AD) and frozen aphids (AF-AD) were assessed as an artificial diet of C. septempunctata in comparison to their natural diet live aphids. Highest growth index was obtained with SS-AD (4.05) diet almost similar to control (4.0), followed by SF-AD, BP-AD, DL-AD and AF-AD as 3.8, 2.4, 1.98 and 1.94 respectively. Similarly, data showed that success index of the adults fed on an artificial diet containing soybean (SS-AD = 1.03, SF-AD = 0.98) was almost similar to control (1.0), whereas the diets containing bee pollen, drone larvae, and frozen aphids was lower than control as 0.83, 0.84 and 0.78, respectively. Protein concentration was highest in live aphid (5.9 g/ml) diet followed by SS-AD (5.6), SF-AD (5.2), BP-AD (3.4), AF-AD (2.2) and DL AD (1.3). The results indicated that soybean based diets were more or equivalently suitable to beetles for their growth and development likewise their natural prey and the efficiency of artificial diets was related to its protein concentration.