Influence of age and diet on the performance of Cephalonomia stephanoderis (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) a parasitoid of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)

Abstract

Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 56(1): 95-100, março, 2012 The coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), is the most important insect pest for coffee growers in tropical America. This species spends most of its life feeding inside the coffee berries, affecting the quantity and quality of coffee. Cephalonomia stephanoderis Betrem (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) is an African parasitoid that has been introduced in several Latin American and Caribbean countries during the past 20 years for biological control of H. hampei (Barrera et al. 1990a(Barrera et al. , 1990bMurphy & Moore 1990;Baker 1999). C. stephanoderis is a solitary ectoparasitoid that attacks eggs, larvae, prepupae and pupae of H. hampei. Female parasitoid enters into the infested fruit through the CBB entrance hole and if there is enough host population, it establishes there permanently. The female parasitoid feeds on all developing stages of the coffee borer and starts parasitizing prepupae or pupae only until it has developed mature eggs. After the onset of the oviposition period, parental females remain with their broods until completion of offspring development. Young C. stephanoderis females disperse after mating and search for new hosts to repeat the cycle. It is assumed that females can feed on sugary substances if the searching period is prolonged. It takes from 16 to 20 days at 27°C for the parasitoid to develop from egg to adult. Female parasitoids live longer than males, and oviposit an average of 66 eggs during a lifetime of 80 days (Barrera et al. 1989(Barrera et al. , 1993Abraham et al. 1990;Lauzière et al. 2001).Several field studies have been performed to assess the impact of inoculative and inundative releases of C. stephanoderis Influence of age and diet on the performance of Cephalonomia stephanoderis (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) a parasitoid of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) ABSTRACT. Influence of age and diet on the performance of Cephalonomia stephanoderis (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) a parasitoid of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera, Curculionidae). The importance of age and feeding on the performance of Cephalonomia stephanoderis (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae), a parasitoid of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) was investigated in the laboratory. Groups of female parasitoids were subject to the following treatments: a group fed during one, five and ten days after emergence of adults with coffee borer larvae; another group fed only with honey solution during five days after emergence; and as a control, a third group was kept without food for five days. At the end of each treatment, survivorship, parasitoid activity (walking and flying capacity in an arena), search capacity for finding coffee borer-infested berries, host feeding and oviposition (on immature hosts), were assessed. Unfed females showed a significant decrease in survivorship compared to individuals that were fed. The type of meal (insec...

Sustenance and Performance: Nutritional Reserves, Longevity, and Contest Outcomes of Fed and Starved Adult Parasitoid Wasps

“…In many species of parasitoids, adults acquire nutrients from feeding on plant nectar, honey dew and host haemolymph (Jervis et al, 1993;Eijs et al, 1998;Giron et al, 2002;Visser and Ellers, 2008) and decline in lipid reserves can be slower when carbohydrate and lipid-rich diets are available (Ellers, 1996;Heimpel et al, 1997;Lee et al, 2004;Wäckers et al, 2006;Winkler et al, 2006;Desouhant et al, 2010;Ellers et al, 2011;Gómez et al, 2012;Harvey et al, 2012). Feeding on carbohydrates can also enhance adult parasitoid longevity (Heimpel et al, 1997;Pexton and Mayhew, 2002;Lee et al, 2004;Wäckers et al, 2006;Kapranas and Luck, 2008;Gómez et al, 2012) and preliminary laboratory observations (CJPS & AK pers. obs.)…”

A coffee agroecosystem model: III. Parasitoids of the coffee berry borer ( Hypothenemus hampei )

“…5a) results in only a further 12.06% reduction in CBB berry infestation. On a practical level, Gómez et al (2012) proposed that feeding honey to adult betilid females before augmentative release reduced host feeding, but the small gain posited here would tend to negate the usefulness of this practice.…”

The Azteca Chess experience: learning how to share concepts of ecological complexity with small coffee farmers

“…The situation described is similar for small-scale coffee farm experiences (Damtie et al 2011). In Sierra Madre de Chiapas coffee farms, important efforts have been made by researchers to (1) identify the relevant insects and fungus (e.g., Barrera 2008), (2) explore pest versus natural enemy bilateral interactions (e.g., Gómez et al 2012, Jackson et al 2012, and (3) describe farmers' knowledge and develop coffee FFS and participatory biological control programs (e.g., Segura et al 2004, Jarquín et al 2006, Barrera 2008. The ongoing rust epidemics are exhibiting processes that invite the actors involved to gain an even broader and shared understanding of the complexity of autonomous pest control, emerging from cascading, multispecies trait-mediated interactions.…”

“…Most cases thus far explored have involved a single pest and one or two (sometimes exogenous) natural enemies (e.g., Gómez et al 2012). Results of producing and liberating natural enemies into the field, commonly referred to as "classical biological control," have been modest because of ecological and logistic reasons but also, we argue, due to a knowledge and communication gap between scientists and farmers (Segura et al 2004, Jarquin et al 2005.…”