Biocontrol Science and Technology (2008) 18, 921-933

Umberto Bernardo, Luigi Iodice, Raffaele Sasso and Paolo A. Pedata (2008)
Effects of cold storage on Thripobius javae (=T. semiluteus) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)
Biocontrol Science and Technology 18 (9), 921-933
Abstract: Thripobius javae (Girault) was introduced in 1995 from Israel into Italy to control the greenhouse thrips, Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Bouché). Following introduction, successive augmentative releases of this parasitoid gave unsatisfactory and contradictory results, mainly due to the difficulty in synchronising its availability in sufficient number at the time of release. Efficient storage of this biological control agent could improve its current production and use. The effects of different sets of storage techniques at a single temperature and with a combination of different temperatures and instars on several fitness traits (residual developmental time to adult emergence after the end of storage, pupal mortality, longevity with and without hosts and progeny of emerged adults) were evaluated in order to determine the best conditions for storing the parasitoid.
For the pupal stage, increasing storage up to 14 days, at 10°C, gave only a moderate reduction (33%) of a modified composite quality index of its fitness. In contrast, when adults were stored for more than 10 days, at 15°C, residual longevity and progeny were reduced significantly. A combination of two temperatures (10 and 15°C) for pupal storage and a combination of pupal (10°C) and adult (15°C) storage had detrimental effects on parasitoid fitness. Temperatures of storage lower than 15 and 10°C had detrimental effects on adults and pupae, respectively.
(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): Umberto Bernardo, Paolo Alfonso Pedata

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
formulation/storage of bioagents

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis		Italy
Thripobius javae (parasitoid)	Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis		Italy
Thripobius javae (parasitoid)	Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis		Israel