Biomimicry in love-cage design: boosting black soldier fly mass production

Abstract

This study employs a biomimicry design approach to optimise egg production in industrial black soldier fly (BSF, Hermetia illucens (L.)) breeding by enhancing love-cage environments. Two experiments assessed the impact of increasing resting surface area and altering surface colour to egg production, promoting lekking behaviour, in 1 m 3 cages with a sex ratio (M:F) of 1.45:1 and fly population size of approx. 16 000 flies. The first trial tested four love cage configurations differing in their internal surface area per unit of volume (3.33, 3.99, 5.11, 7.17 m −1 ). A ratio of 3.99 m −1 significantly increased egg production (18.6 ± 4.42 g) by reducing male competition for lekking spaces. The second trial evaluated surface colours (white, green, mixed). White elements achieved the highest egg output (19.4 ± 4.85 g), likely due to superior light reflection, enhancing BSF conspecific detection for mating. No significant differences in hatching rates were observed across treatments (from 29.4 ± 14.87% to 53.2 ± 21.71% in trial one and 32.1 ± 15.13% to 60.0 ± 36.47% in the second one). Findings highlight the value of designing breeding systems that align with natural BSF behaviours to improve reproductive efficiency. Future research should explore factors like light spectrum and sex ratios for further optimisation of BSF breeding.