Scilight Press

The current study investigated the role of different types of ionizing radiation in causing damage to the eggs and larvae of Galleria mellonella. Moreover, the effect of varying dose rates on the sterilizing dose was investigated besides the sterilizing dose for male pupae of G. mellonella using gamma, x and electron beams. Egg hatchability was found to depend less on the energy of gamma and x-ray radiation in the MeV range and more on the rate at which a given dose was delivered, in addition to dosage amount. After 52.6 and 46.99 h of exposure to 0.662 MeV gamma rays and 6 MeV electrons, respectively, at a dose of 500 Gy, 50% larval death was noted. The male pupae of G. mellonella were sterilized with 350 Gy by all types of ionizing radiation in the MeV range of energy and the effect of dose rate in causing sterility was found to be minimal.