A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis
Espinosa del Alba L, Petschenka G. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, September 2023.
Go to the paper May need a subscription · doi:10.1111/eea.13337
What this paper is about
Studying how an insect sequesters plant toxins is awkward on real plants, because a plant is a mixture of many compounds at once. The authors developed an artificial diet of sunflower meal pressed into pills for two milkweed bugs.
That allows a single compound to be added at a known dose, which a leaf cannot offer.
Summarised here from the abstract below. Not the authors’ words.
Abstract
Insect artificial diets are not only an important tool for mass rearing, nutritional research, and maintaining laboratory colonies but also for studying insect-plant interactions. For herbivorous insects able to sequester plant toxins, feeding and sequestration assays based on artificial diet allow for the investigation of physiological, ecological, and evolutionary questions which may be difficult to study using real plants representing complex chemical environments. We developed a simple artificial diet, consisting of sunflower meal pressed into pills, for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus (Dallas) and Spilostethus saxatilis (Scopoli) (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae), which are capable of sequestering cardenolides and colchicum alkaloids, respectively. We assessed insect performance, suitability of the diet for sequestration assays, and its shelf life. Compared to sunflower seeds which are widely used as a laboratory maintenance diet for milkweed bugs, no differences were found in terms of weight development, presence of deformities, speed of development, or mortality. Importantly, after feeding O. fasciatus and S. saxatilis sunflower pills enriched with crystalline ouabain (cardenolide) or colchicine (colchicum alkaloid), respectively, sequestration was observed in both species. Moreover, as a prerequisite to test ecological hypotheses, our method allows for adequate concentration control and homogenous distribution of toxins across the diet. Under relatively warm conditions (27 °C and 60% r.h.), the new diet was stable for up to 10 days when used for feeding assays with adult bugs. Therefore, studies focusing on the role of plant toxins in predator–prey interactions and plant defense, but also insecticide research could benefit from using this approach.
Abstract reproduced from the published paper, which is licensed CC BY. Copyright remains with the authors.
Related reading in this guide
Find the paper
Cite this page
This page is licensed CC BY 4.0. Quote it, adapt it and reuse it, including commercially, as long as you credit Milkweed USA and link back.
Milkweed USA. (2026). A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis (listing). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/research/a-simple-artificial-diet-for-feeding-and-sequestration-assays-2023/
"A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis (listing)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/research/a-simple-artificial-diet-for-feeding-and-sequestration-assays-2023/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis (listing)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/research/a-simple-artificial-diet-for-feeding-and-sequestration-assays-2023/.
@misc{milkweedusa_researchasimpleartificialdie,
title = {A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus and Spilostethus saxatilis (listing)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/research/a-simple-artificial-diet-for-feeding-and-sequestration-assays-2023/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}