Effect of temperatures and diets on the life cycle of Ephestia elutella

Ephestia elutella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), an omnivorous pest with a wide range of hosts, is responsible for the damage and loss of many stored commodities. However, the parasitoid wasp Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) utilizes 5th instar E. elutella larvae to breed. In order to support the large-scale production of E. elutella for research and parasitoid rearing, we explored the effects of diet (artificial diet and tobacco) on the mortality, developmental duration, adult longevity, fecundity, and population parameters of E. elutella reared at 19, 22, 25, 28, and 31˚C using age-stage, two-sex life tables. Increasing the temperature from 19 to 31˚C significantly affected the stage-specific mortality, reproductive parameters, and population parameters of E. elutella. Specifically, both developmental duration and adult longevity decreased with increasing temperature. For both diets, pre-adult mortality was lowest at 25˚C, but was lower overall in populations fe...,  Age-stage, two-sex life tables, , # Effect of temperatures and diets on the life cycle of Ephestia elutella [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2fqz61305](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2fqz61305) ## Description of the data and file structure One-hundred pairs each of *E. elutella* fed either an artificial diet or tobacco leaves were reared at different temperatures (19, 22, 25, 28, and 31˚C) in a climate-controlled (75% ± 5% RH, 16 h light/8 h dark photoperiod) chamber (RXZ-380A-LED, Ningbo Jiangnan Instrument Factory, China). Adults emerging within 24 h were collected in oviposition jars (10 cm diameter, 8 cm height, with a 4.5 cm diameter lid opening) covered with gauze (200-mesh) for aeration. After 3 h, 110 eggs were selected from each population. Individual eggs were transferred to a perforated plastic box (3 cm diameter, 1.5 cm height), placed on the surface of a sample of each diet, and moved to temperature-controlled incubators. After hatching, fresh food was added every 3-4 days and larval deaths were recorded ev...