A technical goal of our program is to reliably and consistently dispense volumes ranging from 0.1 ml to 5 ml to diverse types of insect container formats, including the 96-well footprint, used in insecticide screening. Dispensing of insect diet posed special challenges to the liquid dispensing process due to the elevated temperature and mixing requirements of the liquid media. Use of available laboratory liquid handling equipment resulted in solidification and clogging of lines and/or dispense heads. Various modifications were implemented including specialized heating, insulation, dispense timing, dispensing heads, tips, programming and washing. These developments resulted in consistent dispensing of the liquid insect diet with the Packard Multiprobe 208 and Asymtek Century 702.
Keywords: insecticide bioassay, agar
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA