Study of mating effect, hosts range and competition with the parasitoid Bracon hebetor on some behavioral and biological aspects of larval parasitoid Goniosus sp

Abstract

Laboratory studies was conducted to investigate effect of mating behavior on egg laying, host selection and competition with Bracon hebetor. The results showed that no differences in mating and egg laying behavior between mated and unmated females. number of egg laying were 90.67 egg per female of unmated and mated females respectively. However unmated female produce only males progeny.The parasitoid showed response to the larvae of different lepidopterous insects such as. Mediterranean flour moth, potato tuber warm, greater wax moth, tomato leafminer, Angoumois Grain Moth and lesser date moth. The parasitoid did not respond to the larvae of Corn stem borer and cotton bollworm (tomato fruitworm) .The results of competition study between the parasite Goniozus sp and B. hebetor indicates that the first parasite was more competitive and parasitism on the larvae of the host where the percentage of parasitism was 72.22% of the total larvae, while, the percentage of parasitism was 27.77% for the parasite B.hebetor.