Recycling of spent mushroom substrate: Utilization as feed material for the larvae of the yellow mealworm Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

• Published in: PloS one 2020-08, Vol.15 (8), p.e0237259-e0237259
• Main Authors: Li, Tian-Hao, Che, Peng-Fei, Zhang, Chao-Ran, Zhang, Bo, Ali, Asad, Zang, Lian-Sheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal feeding and feeds; Auricularia cornea; Basidiocarps; Biology and Life Sciences; Boxes; By-products; Cornea; Crop residues; Diet; Eggs; Engineering research; Experiments; Food and nutrition; Fungi; Industrial development; Insect larvae; Insects; Larvae; Lentinula edodes; Materials; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mushroom culture; Mushrooms; Pleurotus citrinopileatus; Pleurotus eryngii; Pleurotus ostreatus; Pupation; Raw materials; Recycled materials; Reptiles & amphibians; Research and Analysis Methods; Rice; Substrates; Survival; Tenebrio molitor; Waste management; Wheat; Wheat bran
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237259

Spent mushroom substrate is made from the waste remaining after the harvest of mushrooms. Here, we evaluated the potential of five spent edible fungi (Auricularia cornea, Lentinus edodes, Pleurotus eryngii, P. citrinopileatus and P. ostreatus) substrates as feed sources for Tenebrio molitor larvae. Young larvae did not survive on any substrate except the spent L. edodes substrate (36.7%). The survival rates in young larvae were similar among the different diets in which wheat bran or rice bran was replaced with 0, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60% spent L. edodes substrate. The weights of the surviving larvae were decreased only when 70% of wheat bran and > 40% of rice bran was replaced with spent L. edodes substrate. In addition, the middle-aged larvae fed wheat bran only were significantly larger than those fed diets with 30~60% spent L. edodes substrate in dry feed, but the larvae of all treatments failed to pupate. Whereas the green feed was added in dry feed, there were no significant differences in pupal weight, pupation rate, pupal duration, adult emergence, or deformed adults among the three treatments in middle-aged larvae that were fed on diets containing 0, 30, or 40% spent L. edodes substrate. Collectively, these results suggest that spent L. edodes substrate has considerable potential to be used as a partial replacement (< 40%) of conventional feed for T. molitor, and spent mushroom substrate waste may be recycled as feed material for resource insects.