Host handling behavior of the egg parasitoid Telenomus triptus to the egg mass of the stink bug Piezodorus hybneri

Abstract

AbstractHost handling behavior of Telenomus triptus Nixon (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) to an egg mass of Piezodorus hybneri Gmelin (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) was studied in the laboratory. Five distinct behavioral events could be distinguished in the host handling behavior: drumming, ovipositor‐insertion, marking, walking, and resting. Female wasps showed two types of behavioral sequence in an ovipositional bout. One consisted of drumming, ovipositor‐insertion, and marking, and the other drumming, ovipositor‐insertion, walking, and resting. Females did not seem to lay an egg when ovipositor‐insertion was not followed by marking. This was observed frequently in the early oviposition bout, on average 2.9 times per female. Females finally succeeded in parasitizing all the eggs in a host egg mass in most cases. The durations of drumming, ovipositor‐insertion, and marking on an egg mass were nearly constant, while the total time spent by a female on and beside a host egg mass varied considerably as a result of variable durations of walking and resting. Self‐superparasitism occurred when almost all the eggs in a host egg mass were parasitized. Females laid the first male egg within the first four eggs; this could be an adaptation to small egg masses or single egg.