Abstract
Parasitoids are insects (usually wasps or flies) that lay eggs within or on other insects (their hosts). Host-feeding parasitoids lay eggs to parasitize the host and feed directly on the host for nourishment. Temperature is the most critical factor affecting insect behavioral responses. Few studies have focused on the impacts of variable temperatures across different life stages on the behaviors of host-feeding parasitoids. This study investigated the effects of temperature experienced during the preadult and adult stages on the life history traits and life table parameters of females of a host-feeding parasitoid, Eretmocerus hayati. Our results show that the temperatures experienced during the preadult and adult stages significantly change life history traits (immature development, adult longevity, host feeding and fecundity). Increasing the preadult temperature resulted in shorter development times for immature stages of the parasitoid, and decreasing the temperature during the adult stage increased reproduction and longevity. Most importantly, we found that host-feeding events changed with temperature rather than life stage. The daily host-feeding ability of the parasitoid increased with increasing temperature at all temperatures except the stress temperature (34 °C). Furthermore, switching temperatures at the immature stage and adult stage can increase the values of life table parameters, with the highest intrinsic rate of increase (r) occurring in the 30/26 °C treatment. This study provides new insight into the mass rearing of parasitic natural enemies.
Highlights
Parasitoids are insects in which adult females forage for hosts, usually other insects, and deposit their eggs in, on, or near these hosts[1,2]
The immature development time, lifetime feeding, lifetime fecundity, and adult longevity of E. hayati reared on the B. tabaci cryptic species MED were examined at different combinations of temperatures experienced during the preadult and adult stages, and the biological efficacy and life table parameters under the different treatments were analyzed
When temperatures were changed at the preadult stage alone or at the adult stage alone, the longest longevity occurred at 22 °C and 26 °C, intermediate longevity occurred at 30 °C, and the shortest longevity occurred at 34 °C
Summary
Parasitoids are insects (wasps or flies) in which adult females forage for hosts, usually other insects, and deposit their eggs in, on, or near these hosts[1,2]. Many previous studies have compared the life table parameters of parasitoids at different constant temperatures to identify the best intrinsic rate of increase (r)[18,19,21,22,23,24,25]. The developmental rates of larval parasitoids usually increase monotonically with temperature, showing a monotonic left-skewed pattern, while reproduction/fecundity shows a symmetrical unimodal pattern[3,22,23,24,25,26,27,28] This suggests that larval development and adult fecundity respond differently to temperature increases. The immature development time, lifetime feeding, lifetime fecundity, and adult longevity of E. hayati reared on the B. tabaci cryptic species MED were examined at different combinations of temperatures experienced during the preadult and adult stages, and the biological efficacy and life table parameters under the different treatments were analyzed. In other words, increasing the preadult temperature could shorten the developmental time, and variation in the adult temperature could change lifetime fecundity, which could together maximize r
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