Short-range flight test for quality control of Encarsia formosa
1994
Doodeman, C.J.A.M. | Sebestyen, I. | Lenteren, J.C. van (Wageningen Agricultural Univ. (Netherlands). Lab. of Entomology)
Inundative and seasonal inoculative biological control programmes are based on regular releases of natural enemies, which have been mass produced in biofactories. Mass rearing often occurs under conditions different from those under which the natural enemies have to perform in the greenhouse. One such difference is that, under mass rearing conditions, natural enemies hardly have to fly and search for hosts whereas in the greenhouse long distances have to be covered and the need to search for scare hosts is no exception. These kind of differences make programmes for control of the quality of natural enemies a necessity. In these programmes not only numbers of natural enemies should be determined but also the quality aspects of natural enemies related to their performance in the greenhouse. Simple quality control programmes for Encarsia formosa, parasitoid of whiteflies, and other natural enemies have already been designed by the global IOBC working group Quality Control of Mass Reared Arthropods. The next step is to include test for flight and search capacity of natural enemies. The development of a short-range flight test for E. formosa will be described and a proposal for a standardized testing procedure is presented. The proposed testing procedure allows for concurrent measurement of immature mortality, parasitoid emergence pattern and short-range flight capability. It can also be used to study the influence of environmental factors on flight.
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