Intrinsic rate of increase and temperature coefficients of the aphid parasite Ephedrus californicus baker (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae)

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Cohen, M. B.
  • Mackauer, M.

• The demographic statistics and the temperature requirements for development of Ephedrus californicus Baker were determined under constant laboratory conditions. At 23°C, females provided each day with forty 2nd-instar pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), lived for 13.4 days and laid 1193 eggs on average; the highest fecundity of any female was 1762 eggs. For an assumed population sex ratio of 1:1 males to females, the intrinsic rate of increase, r, was 0.371 females-female-l.day-L when all eggs laid were counted. The lower temperature-threshold for development, t, was estimated as 6.83°C, and the time-to-adult, K, as 228.9 degree-days. The potential use of E. californicus in the biological control of the lupine aphid, Macrosiphum albifrons Essig, in England is considered.

• Date created

  1987

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Lupinus
  • Sex ratio
  • Ephedrus
  • Acyrthosiphon pisum
  • Temperature
  • Biological control
  • Parasites
  • Fecundity
  • Macrosiphum

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3XW4833T

• License

  © 1987 Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of Canada. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.