The health and age of the insect culture used for specificity testing must be constantly monitored. The numbers of insects used in each test and the number of tests will vary according to the biology of the insect and the holding capacity of the part of the plant supporting development, e.g. stems, flowers, or leaves. Ideally a different insect culture should be used in each replicate. These cultures may represent insects that are from different localities (as geographic variation in host preference within a species may occur), different ages, different collection dates, etc. The aim is to test insect material that varies genetically, ontogenetically, and physiologically.

A large field trial with many replicates.

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