Selection of Bemisia nymphal stages for oviposition or feeding, and host-handling times of arrhenotokous and thelytokous Eretmocerus mundus and arrhenotokous E. eremicus

摘要: Host-handling behavior is an important aspect of parasitoid foraging behavior. When a encounters potential host, the handling starts with evaluation host and continues if has been judged acceptable. Host usually terminated after egg laying or feeding marking. arrhenotokous population two Eretmocerus species, E. mundus Mercet eremicus Rose Zolnerowich, along thelytokous were compared under laboratory conditions. Several elements host-handling behavior, including encountering, ascending, turning on descending, preening, laying, recorded. There no correlations among durations these phases across populations/species nymphal instars. Duration different showed only slight sometimes significant differences between Eretmoceruspopulations/species. The actual had longest duration all behaviors, was longer third instars than younger ones. Females three accepted first stages either for feeding. spent lot time to make wounds in when preparing feeding, eventually killed host. implications findings use Eretmoceruspopulations/species biological control are discussed.