The egg parasitoid, Trichogramma brassicae Bezdenko (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) is the most important and widely distributed species of Trichogramma in Iran. It attacks eggs of several lepidopterous pests, and is a major biological control agent. Rearing parasitoids is necessary for experimental work, and, potentially, for mass release in the field. Selecting a suitable host is critical fo...

a suitable diet and oviposition substrate are two basic needs for successful mass rearing of orius spp. and this may reduce their production costs. the effect of various foods containing eggs of ephestia kuehniella and sitotroga cerealella with various pollens were investigated on the biological parameters of o. albidipennis in the laboratory. moreover, survival, hatching rate and fecundity of ...

While maintained under all combinations of three temperatures and two RH, fifth instar larvae of the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella were fed wheat treated with spores and crystals of Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. Larvae that had fed on wheat with the bacterial preparation contained higher concentrations of nodules in their haemocoel than did larvae fed on wheat without ba...

Theoretic and empirical studies show that social surroundings experienced by male insects during their larval or adult stage can influence testicular investment in diverse ways. Although insect pupae do not feed crawl, they communicate using sex-specific and/or non-sex specific cues. Yet, it is unknown, any insect, whether how fine-tune resource allocation to sperm production testis size respon...

Trichogramma wasps are tiny hymenopterous egg parasitoids widely used in biological control programs worldwide. The huge quantities of insects necessary for inundative releases are mainly produced on factitious hosts like Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), or on silkworms. In order to simplify production, increase its flexibility, and potentially reduce cost, studies on arti...