Shaheen Tayyab, Guo Jiali, Wang Yun, Zhou Jiaojiao, Tang Guanghui, Zhang Zhengqing
Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Management of Western Forest Bio Disaster, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Insects. 2024 Dec 20;15(12):1013. doi: 10.3390/insects15121013.
Long-horned beetles are among the major insect pests that can cause significant economic and ecological damage globally. The control of long-horned beetles is crucial to sustain the forest ecosystem. , an economically important ectoparasitoid of long-horned beetles, is widely utilized in biological control strategies. However, the number of larval instars in remains underexplored. Larval instar determination is crucial for constructing growth prediction models and ecological life tables for insect populations. In this study, we analyzed the frequency distribution of head capsule widths utilizing a visual approach, followed by a non-linear least squares (NLLS) estimation, and found that undergo four larval instars before entering the pupal stage. The theoretical and observed data for each larval instar yielded identical mean Brooks-Dyar's ratios (1.80). Re-correlation of the number of instars with their respective mean head capsule widths using linear regression (R²) verified that no larval instar was missed. The Crosby's growth ratio (1% and 2%) indicates a very low likelihood of misclassifying an instar into an adjacent one. Given that the accurate determination of larval instars is crucial for developing effective control programs and predicting future population levels, our findings provide valuable insights for implementing biological control strategies against long-horned beetles.
天牛是全球范围内可造成重大经济和生态破坏的主要害虫之一。控制天牛对于维持森林生态系统至关重要。[一种天牛的重要外寄生蜂，在生物防治策略中被广泛应用。然而，[该外寄生蜂]幼虫龄期的数量仍未得到充分研究。幼虫龄期的确定对于构建昆虫种群的生长预测模型和生态生命表至关重要。在本研究中，我们采用视觉方法分析了头壳宽度的频率分布，随后进行非线性最小二乘法（NLLS）估计，发现[该外寄生蜂]在进入蛹期前经历四个幼虫龄期。每个幼虫龄期的理论数据和观测数据得出相同的平均布鲁克斯 - 戴尔比率（1.80）。使用线性回归（R²）对头壳宽度与其各自平均头壳宽度的龄期数量进行重新关联，验证没有遗漏幼虫龄期。克罗斯比生长比率（1%和2%）表明将一个龄期误分类为相邻龄期的可能性非常低。鉴于准确确定幼虫龄期对于制定有效的防治计划和预测未来种群水平至关重要，我们的研究结果为实施针对天牛的生物防治策略提供了有价值的见解。
