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Title: RECENT ADVANCES IN THE IN VITRO REARING OF TRICHOGRAMMA SPP.

Author
item Nordlund, Donald
item WU, E - MS STATE UNIVERSITY
item Cohen, Allen
item GREENBERT, S - TEXAS AGRIC. EXP. STATION

Submitted to: Trichogramma and other Egg Parasitoids
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/26/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Trichogramma spp. are the most widely used insect augmentative biological control agents in the world. Though we have been able to rear large numbers of these parasitoids using factitious hosts, we have not generally been able to produce Trichogramma of sufficient quality in the quantities and at a cost low enough to successfully compete with conventional pesticides in most annual row crops. This has hindered the adoption of Trichogramma for control of pests in major cropping systems. Development of effective automated in vitro rearing systems for these important parasitoids will, hopefully, change this situation. Recent advances in the in vitro rearing of Trichogramma, including rearing on artificial diet for 10 continuous generations, improvements in our understanding of the feeding behavior of Trichogramma larvae, improvements in our ability to collect large numbers of Trichogramma eggs, and improvements in the artificial diet will be discussed.