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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture
InventorsAllen C. Cohen, Rebecca A. Smith, Daniel K. Harsh
Estimating the term…
The present invention is directed to an improved system for the packaging, presentation, and delivery of a semi-solid arthropod diet, for the feeding or oviposition of arthropods. The arthropod diet delivery system of the invention has a diet-filled reservoir covered with a stretchable membrane, wherein the reservoir membrane has a plurality of stretched, thinned outwardly projecting areas thereon (feeding protrusions) which are filled with the semi-solid diet. The interior of a protrusion is in fluid communication with the diet-filled reservoir. The arthropod diet delivery system may optionally further include stretched, thinned inwardly projecting areas in the stretchable reservoir membrane (intrusions), which are particularly advantageous as oviposition sites for certain arthropods. The invention is also directed to methods of making the arthropod diet delivery system wherein the protrusions are substantially simultaneously created and filled with diet. The diet delivery system is suitable for mass production of arthropods at a reasonable cost for uses including as biological control agents.
An arthropod diet delivery system, which comprises a reservoir of semi-solid diet which is covered with a stretchable membrane, wherein the reservoir membrane has a plurality of arthropod feeding protrusions thereon which comprise stretched, thinned outwardly projecting areas in the stretchable membrane which are filled with the semi-solid diet, wherein said protrusions have a diameter of less than about 0.5 cm, and wherein the interior of a protrusion is in fluid communication with the diet-filled reservoir wherein the reservoir membrane further includes a plurality of intrusions therein which comprise strectched, thinned inwardly projecting areas in the strechable membrane.
A method of making an arthropod diet delivery system which comprises a diet-filled reservoir covered with a stretchable membrane, wherein the membrane has a plurality of protrusions thereon which comprise stretched, thinned outwardly projecting areas in the membrane, the interior of a protrusion being filled with diet and being in fluid communication with the diet-filled reservoir, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.