Food and mating influencing the parasitism potential of Trichogramma spp. (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Abstract

Trichogramma species have been employed in the pests control, in different crops and aimed at increase the discussion on the behavior of this parasitoid the objective of this work was to evaluate the mating and feeding in the parasitism potential of Trichogramma species. For that, four treatments were performed for each parasitoid species, which are: females fed of male presence, females fed without the males presence, females not fed on the male presence and female not fed without the male presence. It was observed that the mating is not a factor that affects the two Trichogramma species parasitism. However, the food proved to be very important in the increasing of the two species parasitism potential, not only in increasing longevity and consequent higher eggs parasitized total number, but also in the parasitism occurred in the first 24h. Basing on data of this research, for the species studied use, in biological control programs for the release or mass rearing food becomes an important factor to increase its performance.