The title of the article: effects on growth and digestive enzyme activities of the Hepialus gonggaensis larvae caused by introducing probiotics

A bacteria strain Hg4-03 of Carnobacterium sp., isolated from the intestine of Hepialus gonggaensis larvae, was fed back to the fourth instars larvae as probiotics to evaluate its impact on the growth performance and digestive enzymes. The larvae were reared in the lab with a natural diet treated with different concentrations of bacterial fermentation and heating killed bacteria, respectively. Compared with the control group, results showed that the growth rates significantly increased and the insect mortality rate decreased significantly after feeding with live probiotics. Meanwhile, the activities of protease, total amylase and trehalase rose significantly in intestinal fluid of the group fed with live probiotics compared with the control treatment. These findings demonstrated that the intestinal bacteria Hg4-03 play an important role for the growth of H. gonggaensis larvae. The bacteria community can improve the growth of H. gonggaensis larvae, indicating that intestinal bacteria may probably be one of the most important factors impacting H. gonggaensis larvae reared in control conditions.