Abstract : The order Hymenoptera is extremely
important from the view of Biological control of
insect pests. Biology forms the basic information
for the workers involved in biological control
programmes for formulating mass rearing. The
Apanteles is an old, well known genus, initiated
by Foerster in 1862.
Keywords : Hymenoptera, Biological control,
Apanteles.
Materials and Methods : 30 females and 50
males, wings, antenna, legs were mounted and
studied. 50 early second instars of Spodoptera
litura were exposed to five mated females of
Apantelesprodeniae. Parasitoid eggs and larvae
were collected after 12h interval by dissecting
parasitized host larvae in saline, solution.
I. INTRODUCTION
The parasitic hymenoptera is an important
component in biological control programme.
Biological control and taxonomy are interrelated
and interdependent. Taxonomists need for
the identification of biological control agents,
understanding their evolutionary history,
compilation and to guide explorations for
native and exotic parasitoids.The detailed
taxonomical works on Indian species were those
of Wilkinson (1928, 1929), Bhatnagar (1948),
Rao (1961), Nixon (1967), Rao and Chalikwar
(1970), and Sathe and Inamdar (1988, 1989). In
assessments of parasitic hymenoptera a reliable
approach would be to study their lifecycle
stages. Biometrical data is helpful in separation
of different instars of the species. Fulton (1940),
Cardona and Oatman (1971), Rojas – Rouse and
Benoit (1977), and Sathe and Nikam (1985) have
attempted such type of studies. It is estimated
that there are about 250,000 species of parasitic
Hymenoptera in the world, of which only about
50,000 have been described (Gupta 1988).