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Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is a widespread species of fly of American origins, which is increasingly used to develop sustainable waste recycling processes as it is able to develop by consuming a wide variety of wastes as food, while both its body and the residuals of its...

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Autores principales: Giannetti, Daniele, Schifani, Enrico, Reggiani, Roberto, Mazzoni, Emanuele, Reguzzi, Maria Cristina, Castracani, Cristina, Spotti, Fiorenza A., Giardina, Beatrice, Mori, Alessandra, Grasso, Donato A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8879302/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206701
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13020127
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author Giannetti, Daniele
Schifani, Enrico
Reggiani, Roberto
Mazzoni, Emanuele
Reguzzi, Maria Cristina
Castracani, Cristina
Spotti, Fiorenza A.
Giardina, Beatrice
Mori, Alessandra
Grasso, Donato A.
author_facet Giannetti, Daniele
Schifani, Enrico
Reggiani, Roberto
Mazzoni, Emanuele
Reguzzi, Maria Cristina
Castracani, Cristina
Spotti, Fiorenza A.
Giardina, Beatrice
Mori, Alessandra
Grasso, Donato A.
author_sort Giannetti, Daniele
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is a widespread species of fly of American origins, which is increasingly used to develop sustainable waste recycling processes as it is able to develop by consuming a wide variety of wastes as food, while both its body and the residuals of its feeding activity can be re-used in a variety of processes. However, many aspects of its larval biology remain unknown. Among these, there is larval movement and its variation in response to external stimuli and environmental conditions. Larvae of the black soldier fly eventually reach the prepupal stage, during which they stop feeding and seek a shelter to pupate. Sorting prepupae from the younger larvae and feeding substratum can be important in rearing processes, since they are used to obtain adults but are also particularly rich in protein and lipids. We focused our study on behavioural differences between prepupae and younger larvae, describing tonic immobility as an anti-predatory response of both, but also their very different ways of locomotion and reactions to stress. Finally, we developed a practical system to exploit these differences, inducing prepupae to move away from the substratum and other larvae to be efficiently collected. ABSTRACT: The neotropical insect Hermetia illucens has become a cosmopolite species, and it is considered a highly promising insect in circular and sustainable economic processes. Being able to feed on a wide variety of organic substrates, it represents a source of lipids and proteins for many uses and produces recyclable waste. We investigated the characteristics and differences in the poorly-known locomotory behaviour of larvae of different instars, paying particular attention to the unique characteristics of the prepupal stage, key to farming and industrial processes. Moreover, we attempted to develop a “self-harvesting” system relying on the behavioural traits of prepupae to obtain their separation from younger larvae under rearing condition with minimum effort. Prepupae differ from younger larvae in their response to physical disturbance in the form of tonic immobility and significantly differ in their locomotory movements. Both prepupae and younger larvae reacted similarly to heat or light-induced stress, but low light and high moisture induced only prepupae to migrate away, which resulted in the development of a highly efficient separation methodology. The new data on the behaviour of H. illucens not only shed new light on some unexplored aspects of its biology, but also led to develop an inexpensive self-harvesting system that can be implemented in small-scale and industrial farming.
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spelling pubmed-88793022022-02-26 Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae Giannetti, Daniele Schifani, Enrico Reggiani, Roberto Mazzoni, Emanuele Reguzzi, Maria Cristina Castracani, Cristina Spotti, Fiorenza A. Giardina, Beatrice Mori, Alessandra Grasso, Donato A. Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is a widespread species of fly of American origins, which is increasingly used to develop sustainable waste recycling processes as it is able to develop by consuming a wide variety of wastes as food, while both its body and the residuals of its feeding activity can be re-used in a variety of processes. However, many aspects of its larval biology remain unknown. Among these, there is larval movement and its variation in response to external stimuli and environmental conditions. Larvae of the black soldier fly eventually reach the prepupal stage, during which they stop feeding and seek a shelter to pupate. Sorting prepupae from the younger larvae and feeding substratum can be important in rearing processes, since they are used to obtain adults but are also particularly rich in protein and lipids. We focused our study on behavioural differences between prepupae and younger larvae, describing tonic immobility as an anti-predatory response of both, but also their very different ways of locomotion and reactions to stress. Finally, we developed a practical system to exploit these differences, inducing prepupae to move away from the substratum and other larvae to be efficiently collected. ABSTRACT: The neotropical insect Hermetia illucens has become a cosmopolite species, and it is considered a highly promising insect in circular and sustainable economic processes. Being able to feed on a wide variety of organic substrates, it represents a source of lipids and proteins for many uses and produces recyclable waste. We investigated the characteristics and differences in the poorly-known locomotory behaviour of larvae of different instars, paying particular attention to the unique characteristics of the prepupal stage, key to farming and industrial processes. Moreover, we attempted to develop a “self-harvesting” system relying on the behavioural traits of prepupae to obtain their separation from younger larvae under rearing condition with minimum effort. Prepupae differ from younger larvae in their response to physical disturbance in the form of tonic immobility and significantly differ in their locomotory movements. Both prepupae and younger larvae reacted similarly to heat or light-induced stress, but low light and high moisture induced only prepupae to migrate away, which resulted in the development of a highly efficient separation methodology. The new data on the behaviour of H. illucens not only shed new light on some unexplored aspects of its biology, but also led to develop an inexpensive self-harvesting system that can be implemented in small-scale and industrial farming. MDPI 2022-01-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8879302/ /pubmed/35206701 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13020127 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Giannetti, Daniele
Schifani, Enrico
Reggiani, Roberto
Mazzoni, Emanuele
Reguzzi, Maria Cristina
Castracani, Cristina
Spotti, Fiorenza A.
Giardina, Beatrice
Mori, Alessandra
Grasso, Donato A.
Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae
title Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae
title_full Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae
title_fullStr Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae
title_full_unstemmed Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae
title_short Do It by Yourself: Larval Locomotion in the Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens, with a Novel “Self-Harvesting” Method to Separate Prepupae
title_sort do it by yourself: larval locomotion in the black soldier fly hermetia illucens, with a novel “self-harvesting” method to separate prepupae
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8879302/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206701
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13020127
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