Chewing ability, courtship and egg-laying behaviors of the parasitoid wasp Melittobia sosui Dahms, 1984 (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)

Abstract

We present observations on Melittobia sosui Dahms chewing ability, courtship and egg-laying behaviors. Under laboratory conditions and with 12 tested different hosts, the parasitoid took a successful chewing on cocoons of four Sphecidae wasps and puparia of Drosophilidae and Muscidae flies. The highest successful chewing proportion was 83.3% on Chalybion bengalense (Sphecidae) cocoons. During courtship, the male mounted the female’s back by grasping her pronotum with his forelegs, his hindlegs straddling her abdomen, his midlegs raising upwards, and clasping the female’s antennal tips into his antennal scapes. The male tapped his midlegs on the female’s midlegs or pronotum, shook his antennae and simultaneously fluttered the wings. A male of M. sosui could courtship many females, even female pupae. After feeding on hemolymph exuded from the wounds made by her sting, the physogastric female laid batches of eggs. To oviposit, the female extended her legs to the sides and her wings were raised to an angle of about 45° from the body. She exposed and lowered her ovipositor often perpendicular to the host surface and laid eggs; after each oviposition her abdominal apex was slightly raised upwards.