Influence of Incubation Temperature and Relative Humidity on the Egg Hatchability Pattern of Two-Spotted (Gryllus bimaculatus) and House (Acheta domesticus) Crickets.

Simple Summary: Simple Summary: Cricket farming requires high proportions of nymph hatching and a shorter period from incubation to hatching to increase productivity and lower production costs, resulting in optimized conditions and productivity. Two-spotted (Gryllus bimaculatus) and house (Acheta domesticus) crickets are two important cricket types in domesticated and industrial production. When the eggs of the two cricket types were subjected to a low to high incubation temperature (23–33 °C) with a constant relative humidity (RH) of 70%, the two-spotted crickets exhibited faster hatching (emergence) than the house crickets. Additionally, the onset of hatching decreased with higher incubation temperatures for both types of crickets. Afterward, RH levels varied during egg incubation. It was found that an optimum incubation temperature of 31 °C and 70% RH produced a hatching rate of about 80% and 6 days for the start of hatching for two-spotted crickets, while an optimum incubation temperature of 30 °C and 65–75% RH provided a daily peak hatching rate of about 66% and 12 days for the start of hatching for house crickets. Further studies are required to better clarify the conditions that may influence hatchability and productivity. This study aimed to determine the influence and optimal conditions of incubation temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the egg hatchability patterns of two-spotted (Gryllus bimaculatus) and house (Acheta domesticus) crickets. Experiment I involved 100 cricket eggs per hatching box for each species, with six replications for each controlled incubation temperature of 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33 °C at 70% RH. Experiment II used all the same procedures as Experiment I, except for incubation temperatures of 29, 30, 31, and 32 °C tested with varied RH levels of 65%, 70%, and 75%. In Experiment I, two-spotted crickets (9.47 ± 1.99 days) exhibited faster hatching than house crickets (13.70 ± 2.78 days). Additionally, the onset of hatching decreased with higher incubation temperatures for both types of crickets. In Experiment II, an incubation temperature of 31 °C and 70% RH resulted in a hatching rate of 79.75% for two-spotted crickets, with hatching beginning in 6 days. For house cricket eggs, the optimal conditions of 30 °C and 65–75% RH led to a peak daily hatching rate of 62.00–65.50% and hatching onset in 12 days. Thus, this study established the optimal incubation temperature and RH for egg hatching of two-spotted and house crickets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]