Electrophoretic study of enzymes from cereal aphid populations. II. Use of electrophoresis for identifying aphidiid parasitoids (Hymenoptera) of Sitobion avenae (F.) (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Abstract

AbstractThe effect of parasitism by the aphidiid wasp Aphidius uzbekistanicus (Luzhetski) on the isoenzyme banding patterns of 14 soluble enzymes separated by one–dimensional slab polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis from crude homogenates of its main host, Sitobion avenae (F.), are described. Parasitism was found to be detectable using any 12 of these enzymes. The differences observed between the banding patterns for three enzymes (ester–ase, malate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme) separated from the adults of five primary parasitoid species attacking this aphid (A. picipes (Nees), A. uzbekistanicus, Ephedrus plagiator (Nees) Praon volucre (Hal.) and Toxares deltiger (Hal.)) are also described. Esterase was found to be the best enzyme for taxonomic differentiation of all aphidiid species examined. The use of electrophoresis for assessing percentage wasp parasitism in integrated management studies of cereal aphids is discussed.