ABSTRACT
Dermestes maculatus (hide beetle) is a cosmopolitan pest of stored animal-based products, including dried fish, hides, and poultry, yet its reproductive response to different protein sources under ambient field conditions remains inadequately characterized. This study investigated the feeding preference and reproductive performance of adult D. maculatus on five proteinaceous diets (fish, mutton, beef, chick, and goat hide) offered individually and in combination, under ambient laboratory conditions (33.0±0.72°C, 60.4±0.33% RH) at the Insectary of the Biological Garden, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Food preference was assessed using choice-cage bioassays over a 40-minute feeding window, while fecundity, incubation period, hatchability, and egg viability were monitored on the most preferred diets. Among individual foods, fish protein was designated the standard reference food, recording the highest preference value (100%) and consumption (0.57 g), followed by mutton, beef, hide, and chick, while chick + beef was the most preferred combined diet (95.6%). Beef supported the highest number of eggs deposited (132.00±4.34), followed by fish, chick, and mutton, whereas chick protein produced the highest number of hatched eggs (91.00±2.46) and the shortest incubation period (3.00±0.39 days). Egg viability did not differ significantly among diets (P>0.05). These findings identify fish as the most preferred food and standard reference diet for D. maculatus, while beef and chick proved most favorable for oviposition and egg hatchability, respectively. The results provide a baseline for optimizing laboratory colony rearing and informing pest-management strategies targeting this economically important stored-product pest.
Keywords: feeding preference, reproductive performance, Dermestes maculatus, proteinaceous diets
