Dietary Requirements of the Bollworm, Heliothis zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), for Lipids, Choline, and Inositol and the Effect of Fats and Fatty Acids on the Composition of the Body Fat12

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Abstract
The bollworm, Heliothis zea (Boddie), was reared on a defined diet to determine the effect on growth and emergence of different lipids and lipogenic factors. Cholesterol, choline, inositol, and linolenic acid were found to be indispensable dietary ingredients. Linoleic acid is also believed to be indispensable because it promoted some emergence and improved the maturation of the moths. Diets lacking fat or fatty acids or containing added triolein or oleic acid resulted in no moth emergence. Dietary corn oil, linseed oil, or linolenic acid resulted in optimum emergence. Analyses of the fatty acids extracted from bollworm larvae and pupae showed that the bollworm synthesized palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, and oleic acids when they were not present in the diet. However, apparently no synthesis of either linoleic or linolenic acids occurred nor did the feeding of one of them result in synthesis of the other in amounts that could be measured. The fatty acid composition of bollworm pupae reared on casein diet containing corn oil was similar to that of bollworms reared from the corn plant. Bollworms reared on wheat-germ diet also were analyzed for fatty acids at different pupal stages.

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