Autoparasitoids such as Encarsia tricolor are parasitoids that lay fertilised female eggs on its whitefly hosts (i.e. primary parasitoids) and unfertilised male eggs on larval parasitoids of either the same species or another species such as E. formosa (i.e. secondary parasitoids).
For an efficient rearing is it useful or even necessary to have an additional primary parasitoid species where the males can be produced (male parasitoids are necessary since virgins can only lay unfertilised eggs in secondary hosts)?
This would reduce killing larvae of the species I want to rear and might improve rearing success (or due to other reasons). On the other hand males might be rare enough that hyperparasitism of the own species doesn't matter at all for rearing efficacy.
Any ideas or experience would be helpful.
Encarsia tricolor has greater reproductive success on E. formasa, but it can successfullly reproduce on E. tricolor (as a secondary host). Just to simplify a rearing system for E. tricolor, you might consider having two colonies. One with the whitefly to produce female E. tricolor and one with E. tricolor-parasitized whiteflies to produce males. If you work out the timing for your environmental conditions to gauge the correct vulnerable stages and cycle the hosts through at the appropriate intervals, you should generate mostly females in the first colony and mostly males in the second.
Thanks for the paper, this means another host seems to be not really necessary.
You have to look at www.doiserbia.nb.rs/ft.aspx?id=0354-46641103867G for more information
Encarsia tricolor has greater reproductive success on E. formasa, but it can successfullly reproduce on E. tricolor (as a secondary host). Just to simplify a rearing system for E. tricolor, you might consider having two colonies. One with the whitefly to produce female E. tricolor and one with E. tricolor-parasitized whiteflies to produce males. If you work out the timing for your environmental conditions to gauge the correct vulnerable stages and cycle the hosts through at the appropriate intervals, you should generate mostly females in the first colony and mostly males in the second.
Thanks for the idea, I guess this will need some work on the rearing schedule then and hopefully it will improve the rearing success substantially.
Thanks for the reply, I just downloaded the paper. What makes your method more efficient compared to Reitz's method?
In Encartia spp. the sex ratio changes with temperature in the field , if it is nor due to unavailability of male during winter and the phenomena is due to the physiological response to the temperature you can exploit this physical condition.
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