Cheilomenes sexmaculata Fabricius

Cheilomenes sexmaculata is very important, polyphagous predator of aphids and other soft bodied insects. It has been recorded on most of the crop ecosystems particularly where aphids are serious pests. It has been produced in the laboratory and used for the'suppression of Aphis craccivora on groundnut. Cheilomenes sexmaculata is also used in cotton, citrus and sunflower ecosystems, etc.

Five mated females after an pre-oviposition period of 1.4 days are released in the jar containing A. craccivora infested seedlings for 24 hrs. for egg laying. Next day the beetles are aspirated and released in a similar cage. The females are used this way for 23 days after that they are released in the field because their fecundity declines but they consume same number of aphids. The eggs laid by Cheilomenes sexmaculata hatch in 3-4 days time, and only 1/4th of the grubs continue further feeding for 8 days, the rest 3/4 of grubs are divided into three and thereafter to three similar type of Aphis craccivora jars for further development. For pupation paper pieces are provided in each of the jars, and the moisture-level is reduced by stopping water, after that they pupate. The beetles start emerging 5 days after pupation which are aspirated and placed separately in the mating cages. The beetles after mating and preoviposition period are cycled again. Each jar yields about 50 beetles.

At Gujarat and some other centres the beetles are reared in different types of containers (round iron cages measuring 30 cms in dia and 10 cm in height). The recovery from group rearing (50- 60 in each group) is about 75%.