Reproductive Biology of Fopius vandenboschi (Fullaway) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in the Laboratory

Duangta  Julsirikul; Sangvorn  Kitthawee

Authors

Duangta Julsirikul Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Burapha University, Chonburi 20131, Thailand
Sangvorn Kitthawee Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

Keywords:

Fopius vandenboschi (Fullaway), Bactrocera, Reproductive biology, Natural enemies, Mass-rearing

Abstract

Fopius vandenboschi (Fullaway) is one of the natural enemies of oriental fruit flies in genus Bactrocera. It is a koinobiont solitary endoparasitoid that parasitizes first and second instars of oriental fruit flies. The advantages of this parasitoid are the ability to parasitize several host species and the length of female longevity. Reproductive biology of F. vandenboschi in this research showed that it produced average 21.0±13.4 offspring per female, equivalent to net reproductive rate of 8.4 female offspring per generation. The sex ratio is equal to 0.6 : 0.4 (♂ : ♀) and the mean generation time of is 22.5 days. These results can be applied for mass-rearing
production of F. vandenboschi for inoculative and inundative release to enhance management populations of Bactrocera fruit fly pest in Thailand.

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