Effects of mating and oviposition delay on parasitism rate and sex allocation behaviour of Diaeretiella rapae (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae)

Does rearing an aphid parasitoid on one host affect its ability to parasitize another species?

“…This will be particularly important given that the P. unicum reared on green peach aphid exhibited a 2‐day delay in oviposition; in the unconfined conditions of the field, this might translate into dispersal, rather than eventual oviposition and might have other effects on fitness. A study with D. rapae showed that delayed oviposition (2‐day) resulted in decreased oviposition performance (Kant et al ., ); however, the fecundity of P. unicum was not affected by the timing of oviposition in the present study.…”

Sublethal effects of chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam seed treatments when Lysiphlebus testaceipes feed on sunflower extrafloral nectar

“…Srivastava and Singh 1995a). In aphidiine wasps, sex ratio can be diminished by various stressors such as high temperature (Deng and Tsai 1998;Matin et al 2009), low temperature (Sigsgaard 2000;Mahi et al 2014), multiple matings (Kant et al 2012) and aging (Srivastava and Singh 1995b;Kant et al 2013). Since the rate of mumification among aphids not harvested for dissection was similar across treatments, the lower sex ratio in the thiamethoxam treatment is most likely attributable to neurologic impairment of females that interfered to some extent with their ability to fertilize eggs.…”

Agathis bishopi, a Larval Parasitoid of False Codling MothThaumatotibia leucotreta: Laboratory Rearing and Effect of Adult food on Parasitism and Longevity

“…The higher percentage parasitism observed in younger (2-4day-old) parasitoids was surprising but could be attributed to host deprivation, as females were only exposed to larvae after 2 days, which could have led to higher egg load and increased urge to oviposit (Kant et al 2013). The observed reduction in percentage parasitism beyond the age of 10 days could be attributed to ageing effects, as previously documented for several other species of parasitoids (Honda & Kainoh 1998;Amalin et al 2005;Kant et al 2013). Although not statistically significant, results from this experiment showed that A. bishopi females are possibly highly fecund between 1 and 10 days of age.…”