Eriogyna pyretorum (Lepidoptera, Saturniidae) parasitoid species investigated in Fujian, China

Abstract

Eriogyna pyretorum Westwood is a notorious defoliator of Camphora officinarum Nees that causes large economic and ecological losses in planted forests. To understand the importance of suppressing the population of E. pyretorum on natural parasitoids, a four-years investigation was conducted in the field. Four egg parasitoid species Ooencyrtus kuvanae Howard, Trichogramma chionis Ishii, Telenomus sp. and Anastatus dexingensis Sheng & Wang were captured in the wild. One of these is the dominant endoparasitoid species T. chionis, which has a quicker developmental time (8.33 d), more offspring (8.39/egg) and a greater parasitism rate (89.54%). With different elevation distributions, the parasitism rates for Kriechbaumerella longiscutellaris Qian & He, Gregopimpla himalayensis (Cameron), Theronia depressa (Gupta) and Xanthopimpla konowi (Krieger) were 17.29%, 2.10%, 4.23% and 0.83%, respectively. Female longevity (47.75 d), offspring (13.36/pupa) and sex ratio (1.16:1) were compared in four pupal parasitoids and K. longiscutellaris was the most abundant species of E. pyretorum in Fujian Province.

Keywords

• <i>Camphora officinarum</i>
• biocontrol
• parasite