Life Sciences Commons^™

Host Instar Susceptibility And Selection And Interspecific Competition Of Three Introduced Parasitoids Of The Mealybug Paracoccus Marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), Kaushalya G. Amarasekare, Catharine M. Mannion, Nancy D. Epsky

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Three previously introduced parasitoids (Acerophagus papayae Noyes and Schauff, Anagyrus loecki Noyes and Menezes, and Pseudleptomastix mexicana Noyes and Schauff [Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae]) of the mealybug Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) were studied for their host instar susceptibility and sex ratio, host instar selection, and interspecific competition in the laboratory. All three parasitoids were able to develop in the second instars, third-instar females, and adult females of P. marginatus. No progeny emerged from first-instar mealybugs. The proportion of female emergence was increased with increasing host size. Parasitoids selected their host instars for oviposition when they …