On the biomass production of Spathosternum prasiniferum prasiniferum (Walker, 1871) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) as a potenti
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On the biomass production of Spathosternum prasiniferum prasiniferum (Walker, 1871) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) as a potential insect to feed the livestock Arijit Ganguly 1
&
Parimalendu Haldar 2 & Dipak Kr. Mandal 2
Received: 22 June 2020 / Accepted: 9 October 2020 # African Association of Insect Scientists 2020
Abstract In recent times short horn grasshoppers (i.e. acridids) have been emerged as a potential nutrient resource for livestock in India. But it is necessary to attempt their mass production for a sustainable supply which is also cost effective. In this context the present work aimed to evaluate the ability of annual production of Spathosternum prasiniferum prasiniferum (Walker, 1871). The insects were reared in captivity in natural condition without the aid of any environmental chamber that has been used in all the previous works. For estimation of biomass nymphal survival percentage, number of egg pods laid per female, number of eggs hatched per pod, sex ratio, energy content and dry body weight of adult individuals were taken into consideration. Then projected annual biomass was calculated from the obtained results. The findings were encouraging because we have estimated about 66,326 individuals, or 3.55 Kg of dry biomass i.e. 82,234.33 KJ of energy after one year starting from only one pair. Even though the probable annual biomass was found to be lower than the previous works, still it was a good amount, and heartening for mass scale production. Thus we have concluded the work with a notion that this might encourage small scale start up even by poor farmers who are unable to procure environmental chamber. However, other species should be explored in future that can produce a higher biomass. Keywords Insect farming . Annual biomass . Spathosternum prasiniferum prasiniferum
Introduction It is estimated that by the year 2050 there will more than nine billion people on earth and because of this global population boom and due to over-exploitation of food there will be a great scarcity of conventional protein sources (Kouřimská and Adámková 2016). In this context it is a must to look for alternatives (Madau et al. 2020). In recent times insects are emerging as an unconventional nutritionally rich food resource where anti-nutritional growth retardants are present in tolerance limit (Das and Mandal 2014). The ubiquitous presence made these marvel creatures a frequent ingredient in common
* Arijit Ganguly [email protected] 1
Department of Zoology, Achhruram Memorial College, Purulia, Jhalda, West Bengal 723202, India
2
Department of Zoology, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal 731235, India
victuals from time immemorial throughout the world (Imathiu 2020). Nevertheless, only in recent days they are getting serious attention from the scientific community. Many workers established that insects are high in nutrients and energy, and many of them could be cultivated as mini-livestock (Zhou and Han 2006; Alexander et al. 2017). But accepting insects as food is no
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