Department of Zoology, Panjab University, Chandigarh - 160 014, (India).
The fertilized females of Callosbruchus maculatus (Fab.) were provided glassbeads (plain and soaked in acetone extract of mung seeds) of the same shape and size of mung, Vigna radiata (L.) seeds. The females accepted these beads for oviposition and the total number of eggs laid/female is about 72% of the number laid on mung seeds and on those glass beads which were soaked in the acetone extract of the pulse seeds. The host eggs laid on both types of beads were given equal preference by the parasitoid, Uscana mukerjii for oviposition and all the eggs are attacked by them. The procedure provided an alternative method for the mass rearing of the parasitoid without involving the host seeds.
