Seasonal occurrence and life history of Paratelenomus saccharalis, an egg parasitoid of kudzu bug in Japan

The kudzu bug Megacopta cribraria has been invaded into Southeastern states possibly from Japan. To explore effective natural enemies of this pest, I studied seasonal occurrence and life history characteristics such as longevity, fecundity and host ages suitable for parasitism. Egg density of kudzu bug peaked in late April and  early May, and then decreased upto August when another small peak was found. There were two egg parasitoid species of kudzu bug in Japan,  Paratelenomus saccharalis (Scelionidae) and Ooencyrtus nezarae (Encyrtidae). P. sachharalis is a solitary, and parasitizes only Megacopta. O. nezarae is a polyphagous species and parasitizes many other hemiptera eggs. P. saccharalis predominantly parasitized kudzu bug eggs in May to July, but O. nezarae did in July to September. P. sachharalis lived 5-9 days, laid 25-40 eggs for a life. P. sachharalis females parasitizing on a kudzu bug egg mass showed aggressive behavior against the same species or O. nezarae approaching to the egg mass.Paratelenomus saccharalis is a potential biological control agent against kudzu bug in US.