Effects of powderization of a granular diet 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 mass and the rate of development were significantly greater in crickets fed on millimetre-order granules than in crickets fed on micrometre-order powder. In addition, analysis of feeding behaviour revealed that crickets fed less frequently on the powdered diet than on the granulated diet. These results suggest that crickets have an avoidance behaviour towards fine particles, or that the granular form is easier for them to grasp and ingest than the powdery form, which may have contributed to growth performance. Simply feeding millimetre-order granules may contribute to the development of feed design for farming edible crickets.