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5.9.2 Application of Agar in Harvesting Insects and Worms
ОглавлениеIn insect culture, agar is utilized as food agent to feed the insects. Agar is utilized for the reproduction of larvae as well as for different tiny animal species. Majorly in silk producing insects, agar is used as a food agent. Tiny silk worms only feed on the tender mulberry leaves. These leaves can only be found in the early budding stages of the plants. Here agar, mixed with all essential nutrients, is used to feed the tiny silkworms. Other gelling products are useless here, as they have some taste in them therefore silkworms reject them easily.
Furthermore, agar is also used as food agent to feed Drosophila melanogaster larvae. In genetic research, different harmful insects are prepared in labs and then they are sexually sterilized using gamma radiation and then kept for hibernation until use. Later these insects are set free during the mating period in fields or in the area where, their population is higher. These sterile individuals mate with the fertile insects, making them ineffective, because these organisms mate only once in their whole life. Their copulation gets exhausted and they are now no longer able to mate with the other healthy insects, thus making other insects useless too.