THE EFFECT OF HOST SIZE ON QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF THE EGG PARASITOID, TRICHOGRAMMA-PRETIOSUM

In a study of the quality of Trichogramma pretiosum Riley (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammidae), we compared female wasps emerging from natural hosts, parasitized in the laboratory or the field with those emerging from factitious hosts used for commercial mass production. Females from the natural hosts were larger, more fecund, and longer lived than those from the factitious hosts. Compared to small females, large female wasps are substantially more fecund when honey (carbohydrate) is available but marginally more fecund when honey is unavailable. The size of a female T. pretiosum depends on two factors: the size of the host egg from which it emerges even when the wasp was gregarious, and the number of conspecifics that emerge with it. The similarities in the size distribution of female wasps emerging from natural hosts, in conjunction with the mechanism by which Trichogramma measure host size and allocate eggs accordingly, suggests the hypothesis that size related components of fitness in female T. pretiosum are under strong selection in the field.