Institut für ökologische Chemie, Pflanzenanalytik und Vorratsschutz
The polyphagous ectoparasitoid Holepyris sylvanidis is a promising candidate for biological control of stored product pest beetles. It preferably attacks larvae of Tribolium spp. (T. castaneum, T. confusum and T. destructor) and could be used in stored product protection as alternative to classical, partly climate-damaging, chemical control measurements. So far, H. sylvanidis is not commercially available and knowledge regarding its host finding behavior is still scarce. The project thus aims to investigate the following questions: 1) What are the principles of host finding/acceptance in H. sylvanidis and what influence does the host habitat have on the parasitoids' behavior? 2) Is it possible to increase the parasitization rate in the F1 generation by conditioning of the parental generation with specific (host) odors? 3) Does the intentional release of laboratory reared H. sylvanidis in mills and bakeries lead to an efficient control of pest populations? We will furthermore investigate the VOCs involved in host finding of H. sylvanidis and use these data for the development of lure-based traps which will a) allow the monitoring of H. sylvanidis-populations under storage conditions, b) enhance the attraction to possible infection sites and b) help to optimize the rearing of parasitoids/antagonists.
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
