The morphometric analysis of parasitoids may contribute to biological control programs by providing information on development of insects and relationships among sizes of morphological characters. Furthermore, it can infer about the impact of insecticides on morphological characters and fitness. We evaluate the morphometry, allometry, and fluctuating asymmetry of the egg parasitoid Trichogramma pretiosum Riley (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) with and without influence of the growth-regulating insecticides teflubenzuron and lufenuron. Trichogramma pretiosum had significantly larger wings and tibiae in treatments with insecticides. We found no effects of insecticides on asymmetry in T. pretiosum and conclude that this insect is very close to isometry. This study emphasizes the importance of evaluating the size of parasitoids destined to biological control programs.
Parasitoid body size has been used as an indicator of fitness and its capability to parasitise hosts in the field, but studies that have investigated this relationship have disagreed. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the two most common body parts used in body size classification and tried to select groups of small and large parasitoids by discriminant analysis. We found that groups with small or large individuals differ from each other only when the two body parts were used to classify them. We conclude that using just one body part to estimate the size of Trichogramma pretiosum Riley, 1879 (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) could be misleading and that caution is needed when defining small and large individuals.
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