Mixed diets review data

The development of cost-effective methods for laboratory and mass rearing of biological control agents necessarily includes the selection of the optimal diet. Experiments with some predatory coccinellids revealed so called ‘additive effects’: feeding on mixed foods ensures lower mortality, faster larval development and adult maturation, higher fecundity, etc. than feeding on each of the components. However, these effects were demonstrated for only some of the studied species. Meta-analysis shows that significant additive effect was found in 29.3% of 140 cases resulted from experiments with 11 species of predatory Coccinellidae performed in 21 published studies. However, if (1) one of the two mixed foods was artificial or factitious or if (2) one of the two mixed foods was limitedly provided, or if (3) the beneficial effect of mixed foods was estimated by fecundity, rate of maturation, or other indicators of reproductive activity, the probability of detection of a beneficial additive effect increased up to about 50%. These results could be used for the planning of further studies on the selection of optimal diets for laboratory and mass rearing of predatory ladybirds

研发用于生物防治剂（biological control agents）的实验室与规模化饲养的低成本方法，必然涉及最优饲料的筛选环节。针对部分捕食性瓢虫（Coccinellidae）开展的实验揭示了所谓的‘叠加效应’：相较于仅取食单一饲料组分，取食混合饲料的个体死亡率更低、幼虫发育与成虫成熟速度更快、繁殖力更高等。不过，这类叠加效应仅在部分被研究物种中得到验证。荟萃分析（Meta-analysis）结果显示，在21项已发表研究中，针对11种捕食性瓢虫开展的140组实验里，有29.3%的案例观测到了显著的叠加效应。但若满足以下任一条件：①两种混合饲料之一为人工饲料或替代饲料；②两种混合饲料之一的供给量受限；③通过繁殖力、成熟速率或其他繁殖活性指标来评估混合饲料的增益效应，则检测到有益叠加效应的概率可提升至约50%。上述研究结果可用于规划后续针对捕食性瓢虫实验室规模化饲养的最优饲料筛选相关研究。