Evaluating Field-Collected Populations of Cotesia flavipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae): Enhancing Biological Traits and Flight Activity for Improved Laboratory Mass Rearing

Abstract

Due to the biofactories’ concern for the quality of the parasitoid Cotesia flavipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a common practice is to introduce a population collected from the field into the laboratory mass rearing, even without prior information about the introduced population’s quality or potential positive outcomes. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether populations of the C. flavipes parasitoid collected from the field exhibit better biological characteristics and flight activity, with the aim of incorporating them into laboratory mass rearing to enhance the quality of the parasitoids. To achieve this, a population of C. flavipes collected from the field (Pradópolis, SP, Brazil) was studied for twenty generations and compared with a population maintained in the laboratory for 42 years. The egg-to-pupa period in the field population was shorter across generations, particularly in the twentieth generation (11.0 days). Although the field population exhibited a lower number of adults that emerged per host in the fifth and tenth generations, by the twentieth generation, it showed higher offspring production per parasitized host (56.5 parasitoids/host). The results of the flight activity test revealed that both the laboratory-maintained population and the field-collected population exhibited higher percentages of insects classified as walkers compared to flyers (25.7% to 32.3% flying). The field-collected population stabilized in the laboratory by the tenth generation. Moreover, the results of the biological characteristics, longevity, and flight activity of the parasitoids indicate similar quality between the two populations studied after stabilization of the field-collected population.