Egg maturation and oosorption in Gonatocerus ashmeadi were investigated in the laboratory and the relationship between hind tibia length (HTL) and <12 h egg load, and wing wear and parasitoid age were determined. G. ashmeadi given access to honey-water and hosts, on average, matured 77 eggs in excess of those they were born with. The number of mature eggs in female G. ashmeadi provided honey-wa...

Gonatocerus ashmeadi Girault (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), a parasitoid of Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) (glassy-winged sharpshooter), was used as a model insect to investigate triple marking a minute hymenopteran for potential use for monitoring dispersal patterns of natural enemies in the field. The triple mark contained egg albumin in chicken eggs, casein in bovine m...

The reproductive and developmental biology of Gonatocerus triguttatus Girault, a parasitoid of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar), was determined at five constant temperatures in the laboratory; 15, 20, 25, 30, and 33 C. At 25 C, G. triguttatus maintained the highest successful parasitism rates with 25.1% of oviposition leading to emerging parasitoid larvae and low...

Parasitoid longevity, utilization of Homalodisca coagulata (Say) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) eggs of diVerent ages, and progeny survival rates were determined in the laboratory for Gonatocerus ashmeadi Girault, Gonatocerus triguttatus Girault, and Gonatocerus fasciatus Girault (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae). Ovipositional behavior and aggression between females were investigated when all three species ...

Egg age preference, competitive ability, and behavior of Gonatocerus tuberculifemur (‘new association’ parasitoid) and Gonatocerus ashmeadi (‘old association’ parasitoid) were investigated in the laboratory to determine if one species exhibited competitive superiority. When searching concurrently for Homalodisca vitripennis egg masses, G. ashmeadi consistently outperformed G. tuberculifemur by ...

We genetically characterized the prospective South American egg parasitoid candidate, Gonatocerus tuberculifemur, of the glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Homalodisca vitripennis, for a neoclassical biological control program in California. Two molecular methods, inter-simple sequence repeat-polymerase chain reaction DNA fingerprinting and a phylogeographic approach inferred from the mitochond...

The number of expected generations of Gonatocerus triguttatus Girault, a parasitoid of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar), in California (USA) was estimated using life table statistics and degree–day requirements. Between 0–18.9 and 0– 25.3 generations per year were estimated across different climatic regions in California, using life table and degree–day models, r...