Effect of Host Size on Biological Characteristics of Bracon hebetor Say Parasitizing Indian Meal Moth Plodia interpunctella Hübner

The parasitoid Bracon hebetor has been successfully used as a biological control agent against some pyralid moths. The present study was conducted to know the impact of host size on the performance of Bracon hebetor to elevate its mass rearing technique. In this experiment, two different sizes of the host (Plodia interpunctella) larvae were infested by one pair of B. hebetor and some biological characteristics of this parasitoid were studied. This investigation showed no significant effect on parasitism rate, pupae number, adult emergence, longevity and developmental period (larval, pupal and total developmental period) due to different host sizes. On the contrary, the sex ratio (P<0.05) and body size (P<0.05) of parasitoids varied significantly with the host size. However further investigation should be focused on the walk-in field cage trials.