A modified rearing system for production of Pseudacteon curvatus (Diptera: Phoridae), a parasitoid of imported fire ants

Production of Dipteran Parasitoids

“…Larvae turn into pupae within the detached head capsule (Porter, 1998;Mathis and Philpott, 2012). Due to this manner of pupation and difficulties involved in the collection of fertilized eggs, in vitro rearing of Pseudacteon would be difficult to obtain on a large scale (Vogt et al, 2003). Conversely, sarcophagids attacking advanced larval stages or pupae of lepidopterans, such as A. housei and Agria affinis (Fallen), behave as zoosaprophages for most of their development and therefore show simple hostparasitoid interactions.…”

The introduction of the fire ant parasitoid Pseudacteon nocens in North America: challenges when establishing small populations

“…Mass rearing of myrmecophagous parasitoids has only been attempted among Pseudacteon species and, given the flies' complex life histories in association with their eusocial hosts, such mass rearing efforts are likely to face considerable challenges over and above those encountered when rearing parasitoids of non-social insects (van Lenteren 2003). The rearing protocols we used for P. nocens were based on the methods used for other Pseudacteon (Pesquero et al 1995;Porter et al 1997;Vogt et al 2003) and included close regulation of conditions for larval and pupal development, eclosion, mating, foraging, host-location and oviposition. Our attempts to maintain a laboratory culture may have failed for several reasons.…”

“…We followed the same protocols used for successfully rearing three other phorid species, P. tricuspis, P. obtusus and P. curvatus (Pesquero et al 1995;Plowes et al 2011;Porter et al 1997;Vogt et al 2003). These efforts failed and a series of modifications to the protocols was attempted to overcome potential issues such as high larval mortality, mating failures, and low oviposition rates.…”

“…4 x-axis) was varied from zero to four days; b) each simulation chart shows a set of outcomes when varying female per capita replacement rates between 1.2 and 2.0. The chosen parameter ranges were based on the following laboratory observations: a) the distribution of individual development times was modeled as a log series, per laboratory observations of an initial peak followed by a long tail; b) observed female-male development delays were about two days; c) female replacement rate for P. curvatus is about 1.57 (Vogt et al 2003), and 1.1 for P. obtusus (RMP unpublished); d) the male:female sex ratio of laboratory cultures is approximately 2:1. For the simulation, generation time was assumed to be 30 days, with all shipments occurring within that 30 day window.…”

“…failed to generate positive population growth. Typical conditions for raising other species of phorid flies in laboratory cultures have been described (Pesquero et al 1995;Porter et al 1997;Vogt et al 2003), but these conditions and modifications thereof (described below) failed to yield viable populations of P. nocens.…”