A single leaf was placed in each pot containing larvae and this was replaced every second day.
The window opens when aphids are abundant enough for sufficient survival of larvae developing from eggs.
At the same time, third instar larvae were transferred to the upper surface of the first fully opened mature leaf of individual plants.
It was defined as the period of time until the first eggs with fully-developed first instar larvae were visible in different female age classes.
Attention has focused almost exclusively on adult beetles, probably because their larvae are conspicuously missing from tropical foliage.
An effect of larval food-plant on adult life-span was found with greater longevity in females that had as larvae consumed exclusively lodgepole pine foliage.
Cattle were infested artificially with 2 x 10000 larvae and the engorging adult females counted.
Possibly emerging young larvae still sustained some nutritive reserves from the egg stage.
