Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Plant Protection Research Department, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Hormozgan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Neotrop Entomol. 2022 Feb;51(1):54-64. doi: 10.1007/s13744-021-00919-6. Epub 2021 Nov 9.
Trichogramma brassicae (Bezdenko) is one of the most common species of natural enemies used in augmentative biological control programs in many countries. Understanding of the foraging behavior of a parasitoid can help us to improve its performance under field conditions. This study is the first assessment of trends in mutual interference behavior of T. brassicae under long-term mass rearing (over 45 generations) on a common factitious host, Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier). Our results revealed that the total parasitism rate of T. brassicae reared on S. cerealella eggs was significantly affected by parasitoid densities and number of generations under continuous rearing. Also, parasitoid density and number of generations in rearing had significant effects on the per capita parasitism rate. Meanwhile, per capita searching efficiencies were different in sequential generations and at different densities. The number of hosts parasitized per parasitoid decreased on day 1 of the experiment with increasing parasitoid density, showing the effect of mutual interference. The linear regression between the natural logarithm of per capita searching efficiency and the natural logarithm of parasitoid density showed an inverse relationship. While the m (interference coefficient) values increased, the Q (quest constant) values had a decreasing trend over 45 generations. The highest (- 0.167) and lowest (- 0.242) values of m were observed in G45 and G5, respectively. Accordingly, G5 and G45 had the highest (0.053) and lowest (0.023) Q values, respectively. Thus, it seems the negative effects of mutual interference decreased over generations.
小菜蛾啮小蜂（Bezdenko）是许多国家增广生物防治计划中最常用的天敌之一。了解寄生蜂的觅食行为可以帮助我们在田间条件下提高其性能。本研究首次评估了小菜蛾啮小蜂在长期大规模饲养（超过 45 代）在常见的人工饲养寄主上的相互干扰行为的趋势，即麦蛾（Olivier）。我们的结果表明，小菜蛾啮小蜂在饲养的赤拟谷盗（ Sitotroga cerealella ）卵上的总寄生率受到连续饲养时寄生蜂密度和世代数的显著影响。此外，饲养时寄生蜂密度和世代数对单头寄生率有显著影响。同时，在连续世代和不同密度下，每头寄生蜂的平均搜索效率不同。随着寄生蜂密度的增加，实验第 1 天每头寄生蜂寄生的寄主数量减少，表现出相互干扰的影响。每头寄生蜂搜索效率的自然对数与寄生蜂密度的自然对数之间的线性回归呈反比关系。随着 m（干扰系数）值的增加，Q（搜索常数）值在 45 代内呈下降趋势。m 的最高（-0.167）和最低（-0.242）值分别出现在 G45 和 G5。相应地，G5 和 G45 具有最高（0.053）和最低（0.023）的 Q 值。因此，相互干扰的负面影响似乎随着世代的增加而减少。
