Department of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004, Haryana, (India).
Influence of eggs of four hosts, viz., Heliothis armigera (Hübner), Amsacta moorei Bulter, Earias vittella (Fab.) and Corcyra cephalonica Staition on some bloloalcal and morphological characteristics of Trichogramma chilonis Ishii, was studied at 25±2°C and 75–80% R.H. The size of T. chilonis adult males and females was bigger when developed in bigger eggs of hosts. The mean body length, hind tibia length, and thorax width of both the males and females of T. chilonis were significantly greater when reared on larger host eggs of A. moorei as compared to the smaller host eggs of H. armigera, E. vittella and C. cepholonica. Similarly, the number of pasrasitoids emerged per egg was more from the larger egg host (A. moorei) as compared to the smaller one (C. cephalonica). But, adult emergence of T. chilonis was higher (93.3%) when reared on the eggs of C. cephalonica and lowest (88.3%) on the eggs of A. moorei. The proportion of females in the progeny of parasitoids emerging from the eggs of A. moorei was highest (74.9%) and lowest (68.7%) in the progeny emerging from the eggs of C. cephalonica. The developmental period was longer (11.2 days) when reared on the eggs of H. armigera and shorter (9.3 days) on the eggs of C. cepholonica. The female parasitoids emerging from the eggs of E. vittella were more fecund (107.5 egg hosts parasitised/female) as compared to those from the eggs of A. moorei (56.1 egg hosts parasitised/female). Both the male and female parasitoids lived longer (5.2 and 9.4 days) when reared on the eggs of E. vittella when compared with those emerging from the eggs of A. moorei (3.7 and 7.8 days). Ten per cent of the females emerging from the eggs of A. moorei did not lay eggs. E. vittella may be used as a suitable natural host for mass rearing of T. chilonis.
