Abstract: By concocting a cotton bollworm artificial diet containing 1% leaf powder of transgenic Cry1A plus CpTI cotton “Zhongkang 310” as cotton bollworm diet, a system with a triple nutrition relation consisting of transgenic cottonHelicoverpa rmigeratwo endoparasitoid wasps Microplitis mediator and Campoletis chlorideae was constructed. Six treatments of H. armigera worms were conducted for evaluating the impact of the transgenic cotton on the worm and its parasitoid wasps: (1) fed on nontransgenic cotton; (2) fed on transgenic cotton; (3) fed on transgenic cotton, parasitized byM. mediator; (4) fed on nontransgenic cotton, parasitized by M. mediator; (5) fed on transgenic cotton, parasitized by C. chlorideae; and (6) fed on nontransgenic cotton, parasitized by C. chlorideae. Tracing growth and development of the worms and their parasitoid wasps showed that the transgenic cotton suppressed the growth and development of the worm significantly no matter whether it was parasitized by the wasps or not. The cocooning rate and cocoon weight of the two wasps parasitizing the worms fed on transgenic cotton declined greatly. For M. mediator, the cocooning rate and cocoon weight decreased by 26.1% and 1 mg respectively; and for C. chlorideae, 17.9% and 5.1 mg respectively. The larvae of the two wasps developing in the haemocoele of the worms fed n transgenic cotton grew tardily and some of them showed abnormal observed by dissection. Analysis of hemolymph protein of the worm showed that the total hemolymph protein content of the worm fed on transgenic cotton was lower than that of the control. The results implied that low host hemolymph protein content might lead to the two wasps larvae growing tardily and developing abnormally.

Key words: Transgenic cotton, Helicoverpa armigera, Microplit is mediator, Campoletis chlorideae, growth, development