Agboyi Lakpo Koku, Mensah Samuel Adjei, Clottey Victor Attuquaye, Beseh Patrick, Glikpo Raymond, Rwomushana Ivan, Day Roger, Kenis Marc
Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), P.O. Box CT 8630, Cantonments, Accra GA 0376800, Ghana.
Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD), P.O. Box M37, Accra 00495426, Ghana.
Insects. 2019 Nov 16;10(11):410. doi: 10.3390/insects10110410.
Biological control is one of the best options for the sustainable management of the invasive maize pest in Africa. However, there is limited knowledge of the efficacy of native natural enemies of and their potential use in integrated pest management. The endoparasitoid wasp is one of the natural enemies of in Africa. This study assessed, under laboratory conditions, the effect of on the leaf consumption rate of its host. Fifty first instar larvae were exposed to for oviposition and the maize leaf consumption rate of parasitized larvae was assessed and compared to 50 unparasitized larvae from the same cohort. completed a generation, from egg to adult emergence, in 16.7 days. The leaf consumption rate of parasitized larvae declined gradually compared to unparasitized larvae and the overall consumption reduction by parasitized larvae was 89%. Our findings show that could reduce damage caused by to maize farms but, prior to its use in biological control programmes, further studies are needed to assess potential parasitism rates in field conditions and develop a cost-effective mass production system.
生物防治是非洲入侵性玉米害虫可持续管理的最佳选择之一。然而，对于当地天敌的功效及其在综合害虫管理中的潜在用途，人们了解有限。内寄生蜂是非洲 的天敌之一。本研究在实验室条件下评估了 对其寄主叶片取食率的影响。将50只一龄 幼虫暴露于 进行产卵，并评估被寄生幼虫的玉米叶片取食率，并与同一群体中的50只未被寄生的幼虫进行比较。 从卵到成虫羽化完成一代需要16.7天。与未被寄生的幼虫相比，被寄生的 幼虫的叶片取食率逐渐下降，被寄生的 幼虫的总体取食量减少了89%。我们的研究结果表明， 可以减少 对玉米田造成的损害，但在将其用于生物防治计划之前，需要进一步研究以评估田间条件下的潜在寄生率，并开发具有成本效益的大规模生产系统。
