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How Trichogramma survives during soybean offseason in Southern Brazil and the implications for its success as a biocontrol agent

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Abstract

Trichogramma species are important natural enemies of Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner, a key pest of soybean in new world agroecosystems. Development, longevity and parasitism rate of Trichogramma pretiosum Riley, Trichogramma acacioi Brun, Moraes and Soares and Trichogramma rojasi Nagaraja and Nagarkatti were investigated under natural conditions throughout fall and winter in order to determine how these parasitoids survive during the soybean off-season in southern Brazil. All species remained active along the experimental period. Over 90 % of the parasitoids emerged throughout the off-season, except for T. rojasi which showed lower percentage of emergence in April and May. The reproductive activity was not interrupted during fall and winter, indicating that the parasitoids depend on alternative hosts to survive. Parasitoids survived during the off-season combining slow developmental rate with an increase in adult life span, an important adaptation that improves their chances of finding alternative hosts and food sources.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. John Pinto (University of California, Riverside, USA), Dr. Roberto A. Zucchi (Universidade de São Paulo – ESALQ/USP), Dr. Ranyse B. Q. da Silva (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa) for the identification of the Trichogramma species, and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments to the manuscript. This research was performed with scholarships provided by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) and Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES).

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Correspondence to Cesar A. Marchioro.

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Handling Editor: Dirk Babendreier.

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Foerster, M.R., Marchioro, C.A. & Foerster, L.A. How Trichogramma survives during soybean offseason in Southern Brazil and the implications for its success as a biocontrol agent. BioControl 60, 1–11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-014-9616-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-014-9616-5

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