›› 2010, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (6): 675-682.doi:

• RESEARCH PAPERS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Parasitism of Sclerodermus pupariae (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) on the young larvae of Massicus raddei (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

WANG Xiao-Yi, YANG Zhong-Qi, TANG Yan-Long, JIANG Jing, GAO Chun, LIU Yun-Cheng, ZHANG Xian-Wen   

  • Online:2011-01-28 Published:2010-06-20

Abstract: Massicus raddei (Blessig) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is an important wood-boring insect pest infested Quercus spp. in northeastern China. To explore the biological control approaches, parasitism of a recent described species of parasitoid, Sclerodermus pupariae Yang et Yao, on the 1st-2nd instar larvae of M. raddei was determined. The results showed that the number of killed young larvae of the longhorn beetle significantly increased along with the increase of host densities during the parasitoid adults’ feeding on hosts for supplementary nutrition. The functional response could be described by Holling type Ⅱ model, with the average maximum 0.53 host individuals killed per day. The functional response for parasitism fitted Holling type Ⅰ equation, with the upper limit of host density of 4 larvae per tube during a searching time of 21 days. When the parasitoid density was fixed as one wasp per test tube, the searching efficiencies for both killing action and parasitism on young larvae of M. raddei decreased along with the increase of host densities. When the host density was fixed, along with the increase of host densities the number of host individuals killed increased linearly and the number of parasitized host individuals also increased, whereas the searching efficiencies for both killing action and parasitism of the parasitoid on the young larvae of M. raddei decreased significantly. These findings may serve as reference for rational evaluation on the ability of S. pupariae against the pest in fields and establishment of technical criterions for natural enemy release in forests.  

Key words: Massicus raddei, Sclerodermus pupariae, functional response, searching efficiency, biological control