The effect of piperazine on survivorship and development of Galleria mellonella

Piperazine is an anthelmintic agent and is used as a drug for parasitic infections in animals. In our study, piperazine hexahydrate which a piperazine derivative, was used to study its effects on survivorship and developmental time throughout adult emergence of Greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella L. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) with different dietary concentrations. Concentrations were determined as 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and % 1. The first instar larvae were grown up to aduts with nutrients containing the specified concentrations of piperazine. When all nutritional concentrations containing piperazine were compared with piperazine-free control diet, it was found that piperazine significantly lowered the survival rate of G. mellonella at the larval (7th stage), the pupal and adult stages. Similar effect was observed on the egg production of the females all high concentrations of piperazine. The highest concentration of piperazine (% 1) significantly decreased egg number laid per day per female from 81.17 ± 5.09 to 52.93 ± 4.80. However, this concentration resulted in insignificant decrease in egg hatching rate from % 97.85 ± 0.59 to % 74.84 ± 3.66. Control diet produced 7th instars of % 98.75 ± 1.08, pupae of % 90.00 ± 2.5, and adults of % 83.75 ± 3.24. The highest nutritional concentration of piperazine significantly decreased the survivorship of 7th instars to % 26.25 ± 5.96, pupation to % 21.25 ± 5.69 and adult emergence to % 20.00 ± 6.37. There was no statistically significant difference in the time to reach the 7th larval and the pupal stages at low dietary concentrations of piperazine. However, at the % 0.1 nutritional concentration of piperazine, the developmental time to adult stage was considerably longer. The highest nutritional concentration of piperazine resulted in significant increase in whole developmental time from first instar to adult emergence. In addition, this concentration significantly prolonged the adult developmental time from 37.66 ± 0.77 to 41.32 ± 2.31 days by approximately 4 days. Because the anthelmintic agent, piperazine, has low acute toxicity to humans and other non-target organisms, it can be used as an insecticide with well-adjusted concentrations.