Reproductive performance effects of rearing the quasi-social parasitoid, Sclerodermus brevicornis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), on a factitious host

Wasps in the genus Sclerodermus are ectoparasitoids that typically attack the larvae of woodboring coleopterans. Interest in these species is increasing as they are used in programs to control longhorn beetle pests of economic importance in China and have invasive pest control potential in Europe. Wasps may be mass reared for field release, but using the target host species can be time consuming and physically demanding. There is thus a need for factitious hosts with lower production costs and that are easier to rear. The present research focuses on Sclerodermus brevicornis, which was found in Italy in association with the invasive longhorn beetle, Psacothea hilaris hilaris, and can be laboratory reared on this longhorn beetle and on a factitious lepidopteran host, Corcyra cephalonica. As it is known that the biology of natural enemies can be influenced by the host they emerge from and that the behavior of S. brevicornis is relatively complex due to its degree of sociality (multiple foundress females cooperate to paralyze the host and produce offspring communally), we explored whether, and how, performance and behavioral traits of adult females are influenced by the host species on which they were reared, both when no choice or a choice of current host species was offered. We evaluated the survival of foundresses and their movements between offered hosts and their tendency to form groups with other foundresses according to kinship and host characteristics. We also evaluated the production of offspring and the timing of their development. We found that S. brevicornis reared from C. cephalonica do have some disadvantages compared with those that have developed on P. h. hilaris but also that they recognize, prefer, and can reproduce on P. h. hilaris. We conclude that the use of the more convenient factitious host for mass-rearing is unlikely to greatly compromise the potential of S. brevicornis to suppress longhorn beetle pests in the field.