In a recent post, I discussed the components of rearing systems that comprise the ecological niche setting. In that post, I provided a table from my book on rearing systems, and this table included 22 parameters which are present in the insects’ natural ecological niche and which must be provided in the artificial niche. For…
The above image (Figure 1) shows pre-pupal larvae being reared on a wheat germ diet derived from the Yamamoto 1969 tobacco hornworm diet. In this figure, a few of the “moving parts” of the rearing system are depicted, the insect, the diet, frass, and slits in lidding for gas exchange. There is also an indication…
I have become comfortable with the JMP (from SAS) tools for using design of experiments (DOE). I share here some compelling statements from the JMP website: ttps://www.jmp.com/en_ph/statistics-knowledge-portal/what-is-design-of-experiments.html “What is design of experiments? “Design of experiments (DOE) is a systematic, efficient method that enables scientists and engineers to study the relationship between multiple input variables (aka…
Currently, in all my classes, I use design of experiments (DOE) to help us better understand the factors that are most important in insect rearing systems. I originally became aware of the applications of DOE through a criticism of my statements about using one factor at a time for diet development in my book on…
This important topic is too often neglected in dealing with quality, fitness, and stress in insect rearing systems. I discuss this in depth in my rearing courses, and I provide here a sample of what I discuss. First, it is important to realize that for nearly all metabolic functions, insects utilise oxygen and release carbon…
I have been teaching insect rearing on a regular basis for the past 20 years, and I actually taught my first course in insect rearing (at the University of Arizona) in 1981 and again in 1989. Over all these years of teaching, I have taught workshops (initially at Mississippi State University, then in Tucson, and…
While teaching my latest series of courses on insect rearing, using Zoom and Moodle, I have had some thoughts about the value of this teaching approach: online synchronous (= live) teaching. I am sharing some of these thoughts about insect rearing education. I have been an educator for much of the past 55 years (I…
Yesterday (December 17, 2020) we finished the 6th out of 8 “synchronous” (= live) classes in the 3rd course in insect rearing systems. Our classes consist of small groups of professionals in insect rearing and some students who are especially interested in the science of rearing insects. As a long-time teacher, I have been very…
These beautiful and historic drawings are from an early paper by the famous geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan. The many papers that he published helped establish modern-day genetics (not just insect genetics but ALL genetics). These works and the other 150,000 papers on the various aspects of Drosophila genetics would not have been possible if it…
In the previous post (Nov. 26), I brought up the subject of insect rearing infrastructure, and I showed a sterling example of a rearing system that has served the world well: the Pink Bollworm Rearing System: run by the USDA, APHIS in Phoenix, AZ (USA). I showed a picture of the “pinkie” diet that was…