chrysoperla carnea is a voracious predator. it is currently mass-reared and released for biological control programs. this study was aimed at finding out the effect of different diets on biological characteristics of adult predator, and to introduce a better and cheaper artificial diet for its mass-rearing. in order to obtain a pure and physiologically homogenous population, the predator was re...

When assessing the reproductive potential of laboratory-reared predatory insects, the role of males is often neglected, although they may have a signiÞcant impact on the reproductive output of their female mates. The current study investigated the effect of age and diet of males on the reproductive capacity of the anthocorid predator Orius laevigatus (Fieber) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae). The test...

Parasitoids learn olfactory and visual cues that are associated with their hosts, and use these cues to forage more efficiently. Classical conditioning theory predicts that encounters with high-quality hosts will lead to better learning of host-associated cues than encounters with low-quality hosts. We tested this prediction in a two-phase laboratory experiment with the parasitoid Trichogramma ...

Eriopis connexa (Germar) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) occurs in several countries of South America and its mass rearing is important for biological control programmes. This work evaluated biological aspects of E. connexa larva fed on eggs of Anagasta kuehniella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) frozen for one day, fresh eggs of Dia...