Effects Of Non-host Food On The Longevity And Nutrient Reserves Of Meteorus Pulchricornis

Adult parasitoids often depend on supplemental nutritional resources, such as sugars and floralnectar of flowering plants, to maximize their life-expectancy and reproductive potential. Studies willbe important to evaluate the effects of the nutritional resources on the beneficial and parasitoidcommunities.Meteorus pulchricornis (Hymenopter: Braconidae) is a parasitic wasp which play an important rolein the biological control of a number of lepidopteran pests, which involve Spodoptera exigua,Helicoverpa armigera, Lymantria dispar and Prodenia litura. It is widely distributed in the PalearcticRegion. Strains from Europe have been reported as being biparental. But uniparental strains have beenfound in Asia. Some aspects of the general biology of M. pulchricornis have been covered elsewhere,the effect of nutrition resources on longevity, cocoon rate and internal substance content of thisparasitoid have been finitely explored.The main conclusions were as follows:1. Longevity affected by different flowering plantsWe selected nectars from different plants to study their influences on longevity of parasitoid. Plantspecimen of cotton and cole were grown in our lab while LiChang plants being transplanted to houseduring flowering period.1-day old wasps were bagged in plastic transparent bags and located onflowers of plants followed by longevity recording. Our results suggested divergent mean longevities ofwasps feeding on nectar of Cole were all statistically longer than Cotton and LiChang.We selected1-day wasps to evaluate the internal development of carbohydrates, lipid and proteincaused by nutrition. Parameters of protein, lipid and sugar were measured per3day with bagged waspson flowers feeding2-hours twice per day. Samples were analyzed in3,6,9,12,15days. Our resultssuggested that proteins in rape-based wasps were significantly more than wasps feed on cotton and XXwhile lipid and sugar were uncorrelated with pollen resource. As feeding period mounting, wasps reliedon protein to maintain life. Moreover, non-significant variation was found in wasps without host supply.In summary, Cole is more suitable nectar providing to wasps.2. Longevity affected by different sugarsWasps similar with test2were utilized to test the relationship between resources and waspslongevity. Wasps was twice supplied per day with glucose, fructose, maltose and mannose in1Mconcentration and water controls and followed by longevity recordings. The results suggested thatwasps supplied with all kinds of sugar has a differential longevity and longer than water controls.3.Cocoon rates of M. pulchricornis provided different diet treatmentsIn order to explore the effect of different types of sugar on cocoon rate of M.pulchricornis,selection of1-day-old, the same size parasitoid, put into a consistent size plastic box.10of the beetarmyworm larvae placed in each box, the bottom of the box covered with host feed. Parasitoids were fed daily with a cotton wool ball with glucose, fructose, maltose, mannose200ul, the concentration of1mol/L. Daily replacement of the beet armyworm larvae feed and beet armyworm larvae removedindividually. The results show cocoon rate of M.pulchricornis provided glucose, fructose and maltosewere significantly higher than provided mannose and water.4. Amounts of proteins, lipids and sugars detected in M. pulchricornis provided different diet treatmentsTWe selected1-day wasps to evaluate the internal development of carbohydrates, lipid andprotein caused by different diet treatments. The results show amounts of proteins, lipids and sugars ofM.pulchricornis provided glucose, fructose and maltose were significantly higher than providedmannose and water.