Effect of host plants on the extent of parasitism of Diaphania indica (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) by Dolichogenidea stantoni (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

Diaphania indica (Saunders) is a pyralid moth that causes damage to several cucurbit crops all over the world. Dolichogenidea stantoni (Ashmead) is a gregarious endoparasitoid of D. indica larva. We hypothesized that the degree of parasitism and reproductive success of D. stantoni is affected by the host plant of D. indica. Four host plants were used to determine the success of parasitism by D. stantoni. Choice and non-choice tests showed that D. stantoni is able to parasitize D. indica larvae on the all the four host plants. However, bottle gourd and cucumber had a lower percent of parasitism than bitter gourd and ridge gourd. Our findings revealed that the rate of parasitism and reproductive success of D. stantoni is affected by the host plant of D. indica.