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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #134642
Title: PERFORMANCE OF NATURAL ENEMIES REARED ON ARTIFICIAL DIETS

Author
item Carpenter, James
item BLOEM, S - USDA APHIS PPQ NBCI

Submitted to: International Symposium on Biological Control of Arthropods
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/14/2002
Publication Date: 6/1/2003
Citation: Carpenter, J.E., Bloem, S. 2003. Performance of natural enemies reared on artificial diets. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Biological Control of Arthropods, January 14-18, 2002, Honolulu, Hawaii. p. 143-149.

Interpretive Summary: Releases of natural enemies such as insect parasitoids are useful in the management of many insect pests but may be constrained by the costs of insect rearing. Current methodologies require rearing a host insect on an artificial diet, and then rearing the natural enemy on the host. These methods are expensive because additional insect colonies must be managed, and additional laboratory space, labor, and materials are needed. Recently, an artificial culture medium (no insect components present) has been developed which has been successful in the rearing of several natural enemy species. It is important that diet-reared natural enemies exhibit normal behavior in their desire and ability to find and attack insect pests in the field. Because parasitoids use chemical cues emitted by the host insects, we investigated how rearing natural enemies on artificial diet (in the absence of host chemical cues) might influence performance or host selection. We found that rearing parasitoids on an artificial diet in the presence or absence of host chemical cues did not alter the host preference of the parasitoid. However, the diet-reared parasitoids performed better when they were exposed to host chemical cues before they were released.

Technical Abstract: Augmentative releases of parasitoids or predators in the management of many pest species may be constrained by the costs of insect rearing. Current methodologies require rearing the host insect on an artificial diet, and then rearing the natural enemy on the host. These methods are expensive because additional insect colonies must be managed, and additional laboratory space, labor, and materials are needed. The benefit of rearing parasitoids and predators on an artificial diet has long been recognized. Conversely, the lack of appropriate artificial diets has been cited as a major impediment to the routine use of natural enemies. Recently, an artificial culture medium (no insect components present) has been developed based upon proximate analyses of Spodoptera pupae which has been successful in the rearing of several natural enemy species. It is important that diet-reared natural enemies exhibit normal behavior in their propensity and ability to search for and attack natural hosts in the field. Because both preimaginal and imaginal conditioning of parasitoid females have been reported to influence ovipositional responses of the female wasps, we investigated how rearing natural enemies on artificial diet (in the absence of host kairomones) might influence performance or host selection.