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Selective flowers to attract and enhance Telenomus laeviceps (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae): a released biocontrol agent of Mamestra brassicae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2018

G. Barloggio ,
L. Tamm ,
P. Nagel  and
H. Luka
G. Barloggio*
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, Postfach, Frick 5070, Switzerland Department of Environmental Sciences, Biogeography, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, Basel 4056, Switzerland
L. Tamm
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, Postfach, Frick 5070, Switzerland
P. Nagel
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, Biogeography, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, Basel 4056, Switzerland
H. Luka
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, Postfach, Frick 5070, Switzerland Department of Environmental Sciences, Biogeography, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, Basel 4056, Switzerland
*
*Author for correspondence Phone: +41 62 865 04 45 Fax: +41 62 865 72 73 E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The importance of the right food source for the survival and reproduction of certain insect species is well documented. In the case of biocontrol agents, this is even more important in order to reach a high predation or parasitation performance. The egg parasitoid Telenomus laeviceps (Förster, 1861) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) is a promising candidate for mass release as a biological control agent of the cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). However, adult T. laeviceps need a sugar-rich food source to increase their parasitation performance and produce a good amount of female offspring. Released biocontrol agents were shown to benefit from conservation biocontrol, which includes the provision of selected flowers as nectar resources for beneficial insects. In Switzerland, Centaurea cyanus L. (Asteraceae), Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (Polygonaceae) and Vicia sativa L. (Fabaceae) are successfully implemented in the field to attract and promote natural enemies of different cabbage pests. In this study, we investigated the potential of these selected flowers to attract and promote T. laeviceps under laboratory conditions. In Y-tube olfactometer experiments, we first tested whether the three nectar providing plant species are attractive to T. laeviceps. Furthermore, we assessed their effects on survival and parasitation performance of adult T. laeviceps. We found that flowers of F. esculentum and C. cyanus were attractive in contrast to V. sativa. Also fecundity and the number of female offspring produced were higher for females kept on F. esculentum and C. cyanus than on V. sativa. In contrast, survival was similar on all treatments. Our findings present a further key step towards the implementation of T. laeviceps as a biocontrol agent.

Keywords

biocontrol agentfecunditylongevitynectarolfactometerTelenomus laeviceps
Type
Research Papers
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 109 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 160 - 168
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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