Biological assessment of Tetrastichus brontispae,a pupal parasitoid of coconut leaf beetle Brontispa longissima

To control coconut leaf beetle, Brontispa longissima (Gestro), the pupal parasitoid Tetrastichus brontispae Ferrière was imported from Taiwan and its biology was studied in quarantine in Hainan, China. The parasitoid development includes an egg, three larval instars and three pupal stages. Its developmental time from egg to adult was 19.5±0.5 days under conditions of 24±2°C and 75±5% relative humidity (RH). Temperature had no effect on the sex ratio of offspring, but significantly affected the parasitism rate and reproduction. The parasitism rates were 98.07, 97.97 and 95.03% at 28, 24 and 20°C, respectively, whereas the parasitism rate was 52.18% at 18°C and 69.48% at 30°C, respectively. Furthermore, the parasitoids reared at 18 and 30°C produced fewer offspring than those at 20, 24 and 28°C, respectively. With the increase in temperature, developmental time decreased linearly from 46.19 days at 18°C to 17.10 days at 28°C. RH significantly influenced development, parasitism rate and the reproduction of T. brontispa. With the decrease of RH, developmental time increased from 22.94 days at 20% RH to 18.84 days at 95% RH. In contrast, parasitism rate and the number of offspring per female increased with the increase of RH. Though emergence rates between 50 and 95% RH were much higher than those between 20 and 35% RH, the sex ratios between 20 and 95% RH were not different. Photoperiod had no effect on parasitism, the number of offspring per female, emergence and the sex ratio of T. brontispae, but developmental time was significantly different for different photoperiods. Sucrose, honey and glucose significantly enhanced adult longevity, parasitism and the number of offspring per female of T. brontispae, but had no effect on the sex ratio and survival. Females of T. brontispae only parasitized fourth to fifth larval instars and 1–5-day-old pupae, but there was a significant difference in the number of offspring per female, development time, emergence and the sex ratio of offspring in different instars. These results showed that 1-day-old pupae, a temperature of 24–28°C and 65–95% RH were optimal for T. brontispae. These findings should be helpful in developing a production system to rear and release T. brontispae in large enough quantities to effectively control coconut leaf beetle.