Zhang Yue-Hua, Xue Ji-Zhi, Qian He-Ying, Bai Qing-Rong, Li Tian-Hao, Mei Jian-Fei, Monticelli Lucie S, Kandegama W M W W, Zang Lian-Sheng
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Sericultural Biology and Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China.
State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticides, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.
Insects. 2025 Jul 22;16(8):751. doi: 10.3390/insects16080751.
wasps are highly effective biological control agents, offering an environmentally sustainable solution for pest management through their parasitism of insect eggs. This study evaluates the parasitism performance of six species-, , , , , and -on five treatments of Eri silkworm (ES) eggs, a potential alternative to the large eggs of for mass rearing. The ES egg treatments included the following: manually extracted, unfertilized, and washed eggs (MUW); naturally laid, unfertilized, and washed eggs (NUW); naturally laid, unfertilized, and unwashed eggs (NUUW); naturally laid, fertilized, and washed eggs (NFW); and naturally laid, fertilized, and unwashed eggs (NFUW). The results demonstrate that all species, except , successfully parasitized ES eggs across all treatments. Notably, washed eggs consistently supported higher parasitism and emergence rates compared to unwashed eggs, while unfertilized eggs outperformed fertilized eggs in these metrics. Among the treatments, unfertilized and washed eggs (MUW and NUW) exhibited the shortest pre-emergence time and the highest number of emerged adults, with no significant differences in female progeny ratios across most species. A striking exception was , which showed a significantly higher female offspring ratio in the MUW treatment. These findings highlight that MUW eggs of ES are a highly suitable alternative host for the mass production of wasps. This study provides critical insights for optimizing host egg treatments to enhance the efficiency of -based biological control programs.
黄蜂是高效的生物防治剂，通过寄生昆虫卵为害虫管理提供了一种环境可持续的解决方案。本研究评估了六种黄蜂（分别为 、 、 、 、 和 ）对五种蓖麻蚕（ES）卵处理的寄生性能，蓖麻蚕卵是大规模饲养时替代大卵的一种潜在选择。ES 卵处理包括以下几种：人工提取、未受精且清洗过的卵（MUW）；自然产下、未受精且清洗过的卵（NUW）；自然产下、未受精且未清洗过的卵（NUUW）；自然产下、受精且清洗过的卵（NFW）；以及自然产下、受精且未清洗过的卵（NFUW）。结果表明，除 外，所有六种黄蜂在所有处理中都成功寄生了 ES 卵。值得注意的是，与未清洗的卵相比，清洗过的卵始终支持更高的寄生率和羽化率，而在这些指标上未受精的卵优于受精的卵。在这些处理中，未受精且清洗过的卵（MUW 和 NUW）羽化前时间最短，羽化出的成虫数量最多，大多数物种的雌性后代比例没有显著差异。一个显著的例外是 ，在 MUW 处理中其雌性后代比例显著更高。这些发现突出表明，ES 的 MUW 卵是大规模生产黄蜂的非常合适的替代宿主。本研究为优化宿主卵处理以提高基于黄蜂的生物防治计划的效率提供了关键见解。
