A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis (Heteroptera: Lygaeinae)

Insect artificial diets are not only an important tool for mass rearing, nutritional research, and maintaining laboratory colonies but also for studying insect-plant interactions. For herbivorous insects able to sequester plant toxins, feeding and sequestration assays based on artificial diet allow for the investigation of physiological, ecological, and evolutionary questions which may be difficult to study using real plants representing complex chemical environments. We developed a simple artificial diet, consisting of sunflower meal pressed into pills, for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis (Heteroptera: Lygaeinae), which are capable of sequestering cardenolides and colchicum alkaloids, respectively. We assessed insect performance, suitability of the diet for sequestration assays, and its shelf life. Compared to sunflower seeds which are widely used as a laboratory maintenance diet for milkweed bugs, no differences were found in terms of weight developme..., Details on data collection and processing are described in the manuscript., All files are listed in a text file (README) containing general information, sharing/access information, data and file overview, methodological information and an explanation of the raw data and R outputs. Datasets are presented in individual CSV files. R outputs are compiled in PDF files.