Abstract
Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the impact of feeding status and maternal age on egg load of Cotesia marginiventris (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a solitary, koinobiont endoparasitoid of noctuid pests. Egg load was defined as the number of mature (i.e., fully-chorionated) eggs found in the ovaries and oviducts. Significantly more mature eggs were stored in honey-fed than starved females. For honey-fed females, egg load increased within several days of isolation from hosts. This study suggests that C. marginiventris is weakly synovigenic because females emerge with a considerable number of mature eggs and are capable of maturing many more eggs. Feeding on a suitable source of carbohydrate should increase the egg load (i.e., potential fecundity) of this insect within 3–4 days in an in vivo rearing system.
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Acknowledgments
I thank M. C. Tate for her technical assistance and B. Blair and B. Woods for maintaining parasitoid and host colonies, respectively. I thank P. G. Tillman, J. Morales-Ramos, and N. J. Mills for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. The United States Government has the right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty-free license in and to any copyright of this article. This article reports the results of research only. Mention of a commercial or proprietary product does not constitute an endorsement of the product by the United States Department of Agriculture.
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Riddick, E.W. Influence of honey and maternal age on egg load of lab-cultured Cotesia marginiventris . BioControl 52, 613–618 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-006-9059-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-006-9059-8