Rearing Alfalfa Loopers and Celery Loopers on an Artificial Diet123

Little is known about the biology of the alfalfa looper, Autographa californica (Speyer), or the celery looper, Anagrapha falcifera (Kirby), as they occur in the Pacific Northwest. Hyslop (1912) and Childs (1938) discussed the life history of the alfalfa looper in the field, described the stages, and noted certain parasites and diseases attacking it, but similar information is not available for the celery looper. The economic importance of the celery looper is not known, but the alfalfa looper is a serious pest of peas, mint, spinach, and lettuce and occasionally of alfalfa, sugarbeets, and potatoes in our aera. We therefore decided to rear these insects in the laboratory in sufficient numbers to permit us to study their biology, response to insecticides, and parasites and diseases.