Wax Worm/P. larvae LD50

From 3-27-15.

Checked the survival and health of the wax worms exposed to P. larvae spores.

LD50 Injection

Day 3

Most of the wax worms have begun to pupate and form cocoons. They were late instar larva to begin with, so were likely close to pupating anyways and it is probably not related to the trauma of being injected as the "no inject" controls are also beginning to pupate. There doesn't appear to be any disease in the wax worms that were injected with P. larvae spores, however the wax worms that were injected with B. thur have been showing signs of disease. Namely, most of them have developed black/brown sores on their bodies. A picture of what these sores look like under a dissecting scope is seen below:

Sore on WW body after being injected with 1x10^6 CFU of B. thur spores.

LD50 Ingestion

Day 3

Checked health of the early instar wax worms that were provided spores spiked into 100 uL of BAD. There were many deaths in the B. thur positive control. The P. larvae groups has not had a lot of death yet, however many of the wax worms in this group have begun to display signs of disease. Similar to the sores seen in the late instar wax worms that were injected with spores, the early wax worms have developed unusual colored spots on their bodies. Images of these discolorations are seen below. 

Discoloration of early instar wax worms provided 1x10^4 CFU P. larvae spores

Discoloration of another early instar wax worms provided 1x10^4 CFU P. larvae spores

I will continue to monitor the wax worms survival and health. My supply of this generation of wax worms has begun to dwindle as most are pupating and will soon become wax moths. I am not sure if I will be able to repeat this experiment any time soon..

//EWW