Eretmocerous mundus is native to the Mediterranean region where it spontaneously parasitizes B. tabaci in greenhouse-grown fruiting vegetables. Fecundity on tomato and pepper was evaluated by placing newly emerged couples (n=15) of E. mundus on infested leaf disks maintained at 25°C and changed daily until the female died. All whitefly nymphs were observed for host feeding and inverted to count parasitoid eggs. Adult longevity was estimated at 10.1±1.0 d (mean ± SEM) in pepper and 7.3 ± 0.81 d in tomato. Fecundity (number of hosts) was estimated 171.1 ± 22.8 per female in pepper and 147.8 ± 13.5 in tomato. Host feeding incidence was 15.6 ± 0.98 nymphs per female in pepper and 10.7 ± 1.3 in tomato. Preimaginal survivorship estimated in clip cages starting with 66 eggs in pepper and 59 in tomato was 81.0% and 64.4% respectively. Most of the difference was due to 17% mortality during the pupal stage in tomato possibly due to leaf degradation and not seen in pepper. Ro in pepper was estimated at 67.5 ± 8.71 (mean ± SD) which was significantly greater than 47.0±4.02 in pepper. However, generation time (T) was also significantly greater in pepper (19.4 ± 0.46) than in tomato (18.1 ± 0.36). As a consequence of these two opposing factors, the estimate of intrinsic rate of increase (rm) was not statistically different in pepper 0.218±0.005 than in tomato (0.214 ± 0.004). These values are well above those reported for B. tabaci on any crop indicating the potential of E. mundus to control this pest.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Aphelinidae Eretmocerus mundus
Species 2: Homoptera Aleyrodidae Bemisia tabaci (sweetpotato whitefly)
Keywords: life table, plant host
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