›› 2006, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (3): 387-392.

• RESEARCH PAPERS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Survival and development of Microplitis bicoloratus Chen on larvae of Spodoptera litura Fabricius stressed by heavy metal zinc

XIA Qiang, HU Xin-Jun, SHU Ying-Hua,SUN Hong-Xia, ZHANG Gu-Ren, GU De-Xiang   

  1. State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol & Institute of Entomology, Sun Yat-Sen University
  • Online:2006-07-10 Published:2006-06-20

Abstract:

By feeding the host, Spodoptera litura Fabricius, larvae with artificial diets treated with different concentrations of zinc for 4 generations, the side effects of zinc on the survival and development of Microplitis bicoloratus Chen, a larval parasitoid of S. litura, were estimated. The results indicated that the zinc contents of S. litura hemolymph increased with the increase of zinc concentrations in diets and generations of the phytophagous insect. The parasitism rate, time from parasitism to pupae, pupal duration, adult emergence rate, and adult female longevity of M. bicoloratus wasp were influenced to some extent. Specially, the adult emergence rate of the first generation and the parasitism rate of the second generation decreased significantly with the increase of the zinc concentration in their host diets. It was so concluded that high dose zinc in the diet of herbivorous insects affected the survival and development of their larval parasitoid M. bicoloratus through food chain to some extent.

Key words: Microplitis bicoloratus, Spodoptera litura, heavy metal, zinc, parasitism rate, developmental duration, emergence rate, adult longevity