The in vitro development from egg to prepupa of Campoletis sonorensis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) in an artificial medium:: importance of physical factors

A further attempt to improve the in vitro rearing of the solitary larval endoparasitoid Campoletis sonorensis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) was made after third instars were obtained in previous studies. Respiration was an important factor for the parasitoid's continued development: both small diet volumes that exposed the larval cuticle to air and O-2 greatly improved growth and development of C. sonorensis. Fifth instars were obtained when the parasitoid larvae were reared in medium volumes of 0.25 ml and 0.1 ml per well. Increasing the O-2 tension of the air resulted in larger larvae and prepupae. The agar layer under the nutritional medium was designed to slowly remove water from the diet. The results indicated that a drier environment was important for the parasitoid at the terminal stage. One percent and 0.8% agar gels, which removed water from the diet more rapidly, provided a drier environment and resulted in improved larval growth compared to the 0.6% agar gel. The detrimental effect of higher concentration of chicken egg yolk mixed in the diet was eliminated by using a dry egg yolk layer covered by an agar layer. This sandwich technique resulted in more parasitoid larvae molting to the final larval instar (5th) and the formation of many prepupae. However, the development of prepupae was premature and none of the fifth instar larvae successfully formed a normal cocoon. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science id. All rights reserved.