Abstract
Egg parasitoids play a significant role in biological control for lepidopteran insects, where they kill the eggs (the first stage of the developmental cycle). Trichogramma species are the very important ones of these egg parasitoids. Under natural conditions, adult Trichogramma species are known to feed upon nectar, pollen, and honeydew. Here, the effects of four honey bee products; honey, pollen grains, royal jelly, propolis, their mixtures, and sugar solution, as food supplements, on longevity, fecundity, emergence rate, and sex ratio on different Trichogramma species were evaluated. Three species, Trichogramma evanescens, T. bourarachae, and T. cacoeciae, differed in their responses to the tested diets. In general, all diets containing honey improved longevity and fecundity. Honey + royal jelly and honey + propolis were the most diets improved the longevity of T. evanescens. Honey + royal jelly + propolis and honey alone resulted in the longest lifetime for T. bourarachae. While the best diets that prolonged the longevity of T. cacoeciae were honey + royal jelly and honey alone. The highest fecundity was obtained by honey + royal jelly + propolis, honey + royal jelly, honey alone and honey + pollen grains + royal jelly for T. evanescens, honey + royal jelly + propolis, honey + pollen grains + propolis, and honey + pollen grains + royal jelly + propolis for T. bourarachae, and by honey + royal jelly, and honey alone in case of T. cacoeciae. The emergence rate had not affected by most of the treatments for three Trichogramma species. Food supplements caused an indirect effect on sex ratio of T. evanescens and T. bourarachae, whereas long-lived females were male-biased progeny. Except when T. evanescens females were fed on honey + royal jelly and T. bourarachae on honey + royal jelly, and honey + pollen grains + royal jelly, they lived for a long time but that did not decrease the female progeny percentage. Thus, providing a suitable diet may help to enhance the biological activities for the rearing parasitoids.
Highlights
The genus Trichogramma is one of the very important genera of egg parasitoids broadly used in augmentative release programs against Lepidopterous pests in agricultural and forest
Longevity of T. evanescens differed distinctly among individuals provided with different food supplements (F = 12.08, df = 16,238, Fig. 1a)
P, Royal jelly (Rj), and Pollen grains (Pg) + P that failed to increase the longevity over the control
Summary
The genus Trichogramma is one of the very important genera of egg parasitoids broadly used in augmentative release programs against Lepidopterous pests in agricultural and forest. In Egypt, successful programs have been carried out for using T. evanescens in controlling many lepidopterous pests on different crops, i.e. the lesser sugarcane borer, Chilo agamemnon Bles. In sugarcane fields (ElHeneidy et al 1989), the corn borers (El-Wakeil 1997), the Berry moth, Lobesia botrana in grape farms (ElWakeil et al 2009), and to control the Olive moth (Prays oleae) in olive groves (Agamy 2010). Mashal et al Egyptian Journal of Biological Pest Control (2019) 29:46 control of Trichogramma spp. They are influenced by nutrition (Zhang et al 2004; Wäckers 2005, and Witting-Bissinger et al 2008)
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