A simple, heat-sterilizable artificial diet excluding animal-derived ingredients for adult blowfly, Lucilia sericata.

Artificial diets have been developed for Lucilia sericata (Meigen) blowfly larvae; however, diets for adults have not yet been developed. An adult diet that excludes animal tissues and animal-derived ingredients and promotes not only ovarian development, but also oviposition, would aid in basic research and maggot debridement therapy. We have successfully developed artificial diets that exclude animal tissues and animal-derived ingredients for L. sericata adults. The outcomes of the diets were comparable with those of a beef liver diet in terms of oviposition, adult survival and number of offspring.