Impact of dietary particles on Bti resistance
The addition of either larval food or non-toxic leaf litter particles
to commercial Bti toxin mixture for bioassays significantly reduced
larval mortality in both strains (Table 2). However, none of the
dietary particles had a significant effect on the resistance ratios
observed between the LiTOX strain and the susceptible Bora-Bora
strain, indicating that leaf litter has no specific effect on larval
tolerance to Bti. Finally, the resistance level of the LiTOX strain
to toxic leaf litter was slightly, but significantly, higher than for
Bti alone or for Bti with additional diet particles, indicating that
the relative amount of each Bti toxin may differ between the
commercial Bti mixture and toxic leaf litter.