In Pakistan, the cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Sternorrhyncha (Homoptera): Pseudococcidae), is a serious pest of many cultivated plants. A parasitoid, Aenasius bambawalei Hayat (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), is associated with P. solenopsis. In order to mass rear A. bambawalei for a biological control program, it is important to investigate the parasitoid’s host stage preference ...

Two strains of Drosophila melanogaster (resistant and susceptible) were parasitized by a virulent or avirulent strain of the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina boulardi. The success of encapsulation depends on both the genetic status of the host strain and the genetic status of the parasitoid strain: the immune cellular reaction (capsule) is observed only with the resistant strain-avirulent strain com...

Insect parasitoids and their insect hosts represent a wide range of parasitic trophic relations that can be used to understand the evolution of biotic diversity on earth. Testing theories of coevolution between hosts and parasites is based on factors directly involved in host susceptibility and parasitoid virulence. We used controlled encounters with potential hosts of the Aphidius ervi wasp to...

Chelonus inanitus (Braconidae) is a solitary egg-larval parasitoid which lays its eggs into eggs of Spodoptera littoralis (Noctuidae); the parasitoid larva then develops in the haemocoel of the host larva. Host embryonic development lasts approx. 3.5 days while parasitoid embryonic development lasts approx. 16 h. All stages of host eggs can be successfully parasitized, and we show here that eit...

Host preference is an important behaviour in parasitoid females as they must choose suitable hosts for their offspring. Preference includes location, recognition and acceptance of hosts. Both genetic environmental factors can affect all those stages. Here, we focus on two (rearing history experience) affecting host the wasp genus Nasonia (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Pteromalidae: Pteromalinae), ...

In a mutualistic relation between a potter wasp, Allodynerus delphinalis (Giraud) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), and its specific parasitic mite, Ensliniella parasiticaVitzthum (Winterschmidtiidae), behaviour of the mite guarding the wasp and attacking their common natural enemy, Melittobia acasta (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), was examined. While mite attacks to M. acasta occurred by accidental...

Five species of parasitic wasps associated with hesperiids from peninsular India are documented along with the description of a new species of gregarious endoparasitoid, Dolichogenidea cinnarae sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitic on caterpillar of Borbo cinnara (Wallace) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Also, the gregarious larval parasitoid, Cotesia erionotae (Wilkinson) (Braconidae) and s...

The parasitoid wasp, Hyposoter horticola, parasitizes a nearly fixed fraction of its host butterfly larvae within a host metapopulation of 300–500 local populations in a 50 3 70-km area. We show, through laboratory observation, that the wasp lays eggs in fully developed larvae that have not yet hatched from the egg, constraining the period of host vulnerability to several hours out of the host’...

Polyembryonic parasitoids producing single-sex broods of clonal offspring provide an unusually clear window into the classic tradeoff between the number and size of offspring. We conducted a laboratory study of the encyrtid parasitoid Copidosoma bakeri parasitizing the noctuid Agrotis ipsilon to examine the way that size and number of offspring tradeoff in broods of each sex and to determine ho...