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Performance of the parasitoid Oomyzus sokolowskii (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) on its host Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) under laboratory conditions

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Abstract

Oomyzus sokolowskii (Kurdjumov) is a gregarious larval-pupal parasitoid of the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella (L.). The objective of this study was to investigate the interactions between host and parasitoid by examining the effects of biotic factors such as gregariousness, host origin and stages, and female parasitoid age on the parasitism rate, developmental time, the number of offspring and the offspring sex ratio of O. sokolowskii under laboratory conditions. The percentage of parasitism and the number of parasitoids increased with the number of O. sokolowskii females. Oomyzus sokolowskii preferred fourth larval instars over other larval stages. The parasitism rate and the progeny production of O. sokolowskii decreased with parasitoid age; however, the developmental time and the sex ratio of the offspring were not significantly different. Our results confirm previous findings on larval preferences of O. sokolowskii. The study also confirmed the importance of geographical origin of the host on the performance of O. sokolowskii.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Département de Biologie Animale, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Equipe Production et Protection Intégrées en Agroécosystèmes horticoles, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), BP 5005, Dakar, Senegal

    Gallo Sow, Saliou Niassy & Karamoko Diarra

  2. Laboratoire de Biodiversité des agrosystèmes horticoles TAB/L, Campus international de Baillarguet, CIRAD, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Laurence Arvanitakis & Dominique Bordat

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  1. Gallo Sow
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  2. Laurence Arvanitakis
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  3. Saliou Niassy
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Correspondence to Gallo Sow.

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Sow, G., Arvanitakis, L., Niassy, S. et al. Performance of the parasitoid Oomyzus sokolowskii (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) on its host Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) under laboratory conditions. Int J Trop Insect Sci 33, 38–45 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758412000422

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