A Review of Artificial Diets for Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

TL;DR

This review summarizes progress and challenges in developing artificial diets for aphids, highlighting key strategies and future directions for improving diet formulations.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of successful artificial diets and outlines novel approaches for improving aphid rearing through digestive enzymes and symbiotic bacteria.

Findings

Many aphid species still struggle to survive or reproduce on artificial diets.

Optimizing nutrient ratios and using functional nutrients are key to successful artificial diets.

Future improvements should focus on matching nutritional elements with aphid digestive enzymes and gut microbes.

Abstract

Artificial diets have facilitated in-depth physiological research and pest control in aphids. In this review, we summarize the successful artificial diets for aphids, including Myzus persicae, Acyrthosiphon pisum, Aphis fabae, Macrosiphum euphorbiae, and Aphis glycines. However, many aphid species still cannot survive or reproduce properly on artificial diets. Some key successful approaches for developing artificial diets for aphids are discussed, including (1) optimizing nutrient ratios, (2) precisely adding specific functional nutrients, (3) introducing feeding stimulants and other active growth factors, (4) replacing complex natural components with well-defined substitutes, and (5) exploring future improvements based on aphid digestive enzymes and symbiotic bacteria.

Aphids are among the most significant agricultural pests worldwide. Artificial diets are a critical foundation for aphid physiological and biochemical research and the development of pest control technology. However, their phloem sap-feeding habits, extraoral digestion characteristics, and host specificities pose numerous challenges to the development of artificial diets for aphids, including population degradation, reduced fecundity during long-term rearing, and a lack of methodological diversity in dietary formulation research. In this review, we summarize the research on artificial diets for aphids, encompassing the history of artificial rearing, rearing methods, and nutritional composition analysis of these diets. Furthermore, we discuss the optimization of diet formulations based on aphid digestive enzymes and symbiotic bacteria. We aim to synthesize successful developments of artificial diets for aphids and extend their application to diverse aphid species. Future development of artificial aphid diets should focus on matching the types and contents of nutritional elements with the digestive enzymes and gut microbes of aphids. It is necessary to develop specific artificial diets for targeted aphid populations rather than merely adopting successful formulations and experience with Myzus persicae or Acyrthosiphon pisum. In addition, automated and large-scale aphid rearing devices should be developed, and further research on population degradation during long-term aphid rearing is required to explore multifaceted solutions involving nutritional and environmental aspects.

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