Informatics Publishing Limited

Deepak Singh ¹, Raghvendra P. Singh ¹, C. P. M. Tripathi ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of zoology, St. Andrew's College Gorakhpur 273 001, Uttar Pradesh, IN

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of different host diets on the life table statistics of Bracon hebetor Say, a gregarious ectoparasitoid. The progeny sex ratio was female biased when host diet was maize or wheat. The net fecundity rate (R₀) and total fecundity rate (R) were highest on host diet wheat followed by maize, jowar and rice. The innate capacity for increase in number (r_r), the intrinsic rate of increase (r_m), the finite rate of increase (λ_m) and weekly multiplication rate (r_w) were highest on host diet wheat followed by maize, jowar and rice. The doubling time (DT) was shorter on wheat than maize, jowar and rice showing an inverse ratio to rm and rw. On the basis of life table statistics of B.hebetor, the diets of its host Corcyra cephalouica can be placed in order of their suitability for parasitoid population growth as: wheat > maize > jowar > rice.

Keywords

Bracoll hehetor, Host Diet, Life Table, Parasitoid.

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