Sturmiopsis inferens Townsend

The females of Sturmiopsis inferens are easily identified by the presence of conspicuous whitish band on the vertex (in contrast to the grayish band in males) and the two long downwardly directed fronto-orbital bristles on either side (absent in males). The males and females are separated and released in two separate cages. For mating freshly emerged females are paired with 2 day old males in 8x2 cm glass vials which are gently agitated in bright sunlight or under artificial light. Mating commences within 20 seconds. The mated females are collected daily and kept in small gestation cages (12 cm x 12 cm x 7 cm) and are provided with cotton swabs soaked in water and sugar solution and sugar cubes/split raisins. The adult food is changed every day. A male can effectively inseminate 4-5 females for a period of 4 days after which it is discarded (in the field). The female, after a gestation period of 8 days is pinned ventrally through the thorax and dissected in 2% sodium chloride by using another pin. The abdomen is split open along the ventral suture removing the uterus in the process. The maggots are freed from the ovary using two pins which forces most of the active maggots to emerge from the chorion. The maggots are washed in sterile distilled water. The active maggots are inoculated with 2 maggots by holding healthy full grown larvae between the fingers. The larvae with maggots are reared on artificial diet. The inoculation of maggots is also accomplished by suspending the maggots in 0.15% agar solution and spreading it uniformly in a large petridish @ 2 parasitoid maggots for one Sesamia larva. The petridish is closed and covered with black cloth. Within 15 minutes the maggots enter the body of the larva and then the inoculated larvae are transferred to artificial diet.

The puparia, collected between 6th and 22nd day are disinfected with ethyl alcohol and washed thrice before keeping them over blotting paper/filter paper. These are placed in adult emergence cage (34 x 23 x 27 cm) where high humidity (70-90%) is maintained. Two thirds of the total fly production is realized and the remaining utilized for continuing the culture.