Adult Food and Soil Mixture as Factors Affecting Egg-Laying in Pachnoda fasciata F. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae).

Abstract

Flowers of Pelargonium zonal, 10% honey-water solution and drops of concentrated honey were separately offered as food to adults of Pachnoda fasciata F. The highest amount of eggs (50.58%) were produced by females fed on diluted honey, followed by those fed on concentrated honey (29.96%) and Pelargonium flowers (19.46%), respectively. In another experiment six soil mixtures based on clay, sand, cattle - dung (c.d.) and peat moss (p.m.) were tested for their attractiveness to P. fasciata females as oviposition media. A mixture of equal volumes of clay, c.d. and p.m. appeared to be the most favourable one in which 37.30% of the eggs were laid followed by a mixture of sand, clay, c.d. and p.m. (28.63%) and sand, clay and c.d. (21.29%). Neither clay nor sand was solely preferred by female of P. fasciata.