Kairomones from Euschistus heros egg masses and their potential use for Telenomus podisi parasitism improvement.

Abstract

Telenomus podisi Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) is the most important egg parasitoid of Euschistus heros (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), and its successful parasitism is related to their searching ability to find suitable hosts under a complex chemical environment using host-reliable cues. Thus, the objective of this study was to elucidate chemical substances on the external layer of E. heros eggs and report its potential kairomonal activity on T. podisi. We tested female wasps in olfactometer system to synthetic compounds obtained from a chemical identification of E. heros egg masses. The synthetic blend was also evaluated in parasitism tests under laboratory and semi-field conditions. We identified 31 substances from egg surface extracts, including monoterpenes, aldehydes and alkanes. Among those compounds, a synthetic solution including camphene, β-pinene, limonene and benzaldehyde-induced chemotaxic behaviour on the wasps and increased the parasitism on E. heros eggs, either in laboratory or semi-field test, suggesting its potential use to T. podisi manipulation and parasitism improvement.