BioControl (2007) 52, 613-618

E.W. Riddick (2007)
Influence of honey and maternal age on egg load of lab-cultured Cotesia marginiventris
BioControl 52 (5), 613-618
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.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Eric W. Riddick

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
rearing/culturing/mass production

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Spodoptera exigua
Cotesia marginiventris (parasitoid)	Spodoptera exigua