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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Southern Insect Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377635
Research Project: Ecologically Sustainable Approaches to Insect Resistance Management in Bt Cotton

Location: Southern Insect Management Research

Title: Effects of prolonged mass rearing on life history traits of Habrobracon hebetor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

Author
item BADRAN, FATIMA - Tarbiat Modares University
item FATHIPOUR, YAGHOUB - Tarbiat Modares University
item BAGHERI, ABDOOLNABI - Tarbiat Modares University
item ATTARAN, MOHAMMADREZA - Tarbiat Modares University
item Reddy, Gadi V.P.

Submitted to: International Journal of Pest Management
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/24/2020
Publication Date: 10/9/2020
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/7224280
Citation: Badran, F., Fathipour, Y., Bagheri, A., Attaran, M., Reddy, G.V. 2020. Effects of prolonged mass rearing on life history traits of Habrobracon hebetor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). International Journal of Pest Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/09670874.2020.1830198.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09670874.2020.1830198

Interpretive Summary: Hymenopteran parasitoids are a widely used group of natural enemies that have been successfully employed in many biological control programs. Among these, the Braconidae is the second largest family in the Hymenoptera, whose members attack the larval stages of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. Braconids are well-known larval ectoparasitoid that has been found to have remarkable efficiency against storage pests in the family Pyralidae. Impacts of continuous mass rearing of Braconids on its quality and examined. Additionally, the quality of this parasitoid over 20 laboratory-reared generations using two-sex life table parameters was evaluated. The results showed that the generations 8 and 10 are able to be successfully used as promising generations in biological control programs. However, after these generations the colony needs to be rejuvenated by adding natural individuals.

Technical Abstract: Long-term mass rearing of parasitoids under laboratory conditions may affect their quality both positively and negatively. We studied the quality of Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) reared for more than 20 generations (G) using two-sex life table parameters. We found that G2 had the longest pre-adult development time (12.4 d) and the highest fecundity (1304.00 eggs/female) compared with the other generations. The highest intrinsic rate of increase (r) (0.3273 day-1) and net reproductive rate (R0) (436.28 eggs/individual) as well as the shortest mean generation time (T) were observed in G10. In addition, significant differences in sex ratio (F/F+M) were observed among different generations, ranging from 17% in G2 to 60% in G10. These results suggest that up to a certain number of generations (G10), the quality of H. hebetor significantly increased without adding field-collected parasitoids or changing the factitious host. To maintain the quality of the colony beyond this point, it should be rejuvenated by periodically adding field-collected individuals.