Effects of diet particle size on growth performance of the edible cricket, Teleogryllus occipitalis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

Abstract

Farming edible crickets has environmental and nutritional benefits, as well as social benefits such as livelihood diversification. Commercial feeds for poultry and fish farming are often used to feed crickets, and in recent years, crop and food-processing by-products have also been used to improve sustainability. However, the design of feed for crickets has not been standardized. Here, we investigated growth and development of the Asian field cricket, Teleogryllus occipitalis (Audinet-Serville) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), fed on different forms of the same diet. Body weights and the rate of development were significantly greater in crickets fed on millimetre-order granules than in crickets fed on micrometre-order powder. The result suggests that the granular form is easier for T. occipitalis to grasp and ingest than the powdery form, or that greater hydrophobicity of the powdery form inhibits digestion. Simply feeding millimetre-order granules may contribute to the development of feed design for farming edible crickets.