›› 2012, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (12): 1418-1423.doi:

• SHORT COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Parasitic functional response of Aenasius bambawalei Hayat (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) to Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)

HUANG Jun, LU Yao-Bin , ZHANG Juan, HUANG Fang, BEI Ya-Wei   

  • Received:2012-08-02 Revised:2012-12-10 Online:2012-12-20 Published:2012-12-20
  • Contact: LU Yao-Bin E-mail:luybcn@163.com
  • About author:junhuang1981@yahoo.cn

Abstract: In order to evaluate the control effects of Aenasius bambawalei Hayat on the 3rd instar nymphs and female adults of Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, the parasitic functional response of A. bambawalei to P. solenopsis, and the density effect of A. bambawalei were determined under the laboratory conditions of 25±1℃, RH 70%±5% and 14L∶10D. The results showed that the response of A. bambawalei fitted Holling type Ⅱ model and was affected by the densities of host and parasitoid. When the densities of the 3rd instar nymphs and female adults of P. solenopsis were higher than 15 and 10 individuals per container, respectively, the increase rate of parasitism by A. bambawalei began to decrease. Taking the ration of instant attack rate to parasitizing time (α/Th) as an evaluation index, the parasitizing efficiency was 21.1307 for the 3rd instar nymphs, which was higher than that for female adults (6.2506). Additionally, there was a stronger intraspecific interference in the parasitic functional response of A. bambawalei. The number of parasitized hosts decreased with the increasing density of A. bambawalei. The relationship between searching efficiency (E) and density (P) of A. bambawalei could be well simulated with the model E=0.2931P-0.6240 for the 3rd instar nymphs, and with the model E=0.0944P-0.4840 for female adults. This study provides essential data and methods for the research and application of A. bambawalei for biological control of P. solenopsis.

Key words: Aenasius bambawalei, parasitization, functional response, searching effect, density effect