Abstract
Simple SummaryThe egg parasitoid Aprostocetus brevipedicellus Yang and Cao (Eulophidae: Tetrastichinae) is one of the most promising biocontrol agents for forest pest control. Mass rearing of A. brevipedicellus is critical for large-scale field release programs, but the optimal rearing hosts are currently not documented. In this study, the parasitism of A. brevipedicellus and suitability of their offspring on Antheraea pernyi eggs with five different treatments were tested under laboratory conditions to determine the performance and suitability of A. brevipedicellus. Among the host egg treatments, A. brevipedicellus exhibited optimal parasitism on manually-extracted, unfertilized, and washed (MUW) eggs of A. pernyi, and A. brevipedicellus offspring emerging from MUW eggs had high egg load. The results indicate that MUW eggs are optimal for the mass production of A. brevipedicellus.Aprostocetus brevipedicellus, a eulophid gregarious egg parasitoid of lepidopterous pests, is a potential biological control agent for the control of many forest pests. A dominant factitious host, Antheraea pernyi, has been widely used for mass rearing several parasitoids in China. However, whether A. pernyi eggs are suitable for A. brevipedicellus rearing remains unclear. Here we evaluated A. brevipedicellus parasitism and fitness of their offspring on A. pernyi eggs with five different treatments, including manually-extracted, unfertilized and washed eggs (MUW), naturally-laid, unfertilized and washed eggs (NUW), naturally-laid, unfertilized, and unwashed (NUUW) eggs, naturally-laid, fertilized and washed eggs (NFW), and naturally-laid, fertilized and unwashed eggs (NFUW). The results showed that A. brevipedicellus could parasitize host eggs in all treatments but significantly preferred MUW eggs to other treatments. Moreover, A. brevipedicellus preferred unfertilized eggs to fertilized eggs and parasitized more washed eggs than unwashed. The pre-emergence time of parasitoid offspring emerging from fertilized eggs was shorter than that from unfertilized eggs. More parasitoid offspring emerged from unwashed eggs than that from washed eggs. The offspring emergence rate was high (>95%) and also female-biased (>85%) among all egg treatments. The egg load of female parasitoid offspring emerging from MUW and NUW eggs was 30–60% higher than the remaining treatments. Overall, MUW eggs of A. pernyi are the most suitable for the mass production of A. brevipedicellus.
Highlights
In China, forest insect pests have posed a serious threat to forest trees and agricultural crops
Aprostocetus brevipedicellus successfully parasitized A. pernyi eggs in all egg treatments, and there was a significant difference in the number of parasitized eggs among treatments (F4,145 = 130.07, p < 0.0001) (Figure 1A)
The results showed that A. brevipedicellus successfully parasitized A. pernyi eggs in all egg treatments with varied parasitism and host suitability performance
Summary
In China, forest insect pests have posed a serious threat to forest trees and agricultural crops. There are 5055 pest species accounting for damage in 11.4282 million ha of forestry in China [1]. The outbreaks of some pests often lead to a reduction in the yield of some economically important trees [2,3]. Management against crop and forest pests has mainly relied on insecticide applications [4,5]. Long-term and extensive insecticide applications lead to environmental contamination and pest resistance development [6,7]. It is necessary to develop effective and environmentally friendly control methods to control forest pests
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