Growth and development of Zophobas morio and Alphitobius diaperinus larvae on byproduct-based diets

As the industry of insect production for food and feed grows, the evaluation of alternative, low-cost insect rearing substrates becomes more critical. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the suitability of various agricultural byproducts for the larval growth of the giant mealworm, Zophobas morio, and the lesser mealworm, Alphitobius diaperinus.
In laboratory feeding trials, we studied the larval development of Z. morio and A. diaperinus on a series of agricultural byproducts of barley, oats, pea, cotton, vetch, sugar-beet and sunflower. Larval weight and survival, total development time, and feed conversion rate were recorded. In another set of trials, the larval development of the two species was evaluated in two groups of isonitrogenous diets (20 and 16.7% protein, respectively) based on the aforementioned byproducts.
Larvae of both species tested grew well in sunflower, barley and oat byproducts tested alone, in levels that were comparable with the control. With regard to the diets, low survival and reduced development were recorded for Z. morio. In contrast, the development of A. diaperinus larvae was in most cases comparable to the one in the control. Our results aim to further boost circular economy practices in insect production for food and feed by the exploitation of untapped byproducts as feeding substrates.
Acknowledgment
This research has been co‐financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: Τ2EDK-01528).