Effects of depth of oviposition dish and age ofrearing host on efficiency of mass production of thetephritid fruit fly parasitoid Psyttaliafletcheri

Psyttalia fletcheri is a solitary larval endoparasitoid ofthe melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae. Initiallycolonized in 1985, mass production of P.fletcheri for the last 10 years has beenfacilitated with a rearing method developed earlier.However, the level of parasitoid recovery seldomexceeded 35%. We examined the parasitoid'sdevelopmental biology and behavior to identify theprocedures that may improve efficiency ofproduction. We found that by limiting the depth ofoviposition dish (receptacle that holds the hostlarvae during exposure to female parasitoids) to 4 mm and using 4-d-old (late 2nd instar) B.cucurbitae larvae for oviposition, parasitoid yieldwas increased two-fold.