Effect of Temperature on Functional Response of Aphidius gifuensis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) Parasitizing Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Abstract Aphidius gifuensis Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a common parasitoid of aphids including the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae). To maximize the use of A. gifuensis for biological control of M. persicae, the functional response of A. gifuensis using M. persicae as a host was determined at 4 constant temperatures (15, 20, 25, and 30 °C) and 20 host densities (5, 10, 15, increased incrementally by 5, to a maximum of 100) on a 6-leaf sweet pepper plant (30 cm in height) over a 24 h period. Roger's random parasitoid equation (RRPE) and Holling's disc equation (HDE) were used to fit the data. The results showed that functional responses at all temperatures were type II, and the instantaneous attack rate (a) in both models increased as temperature increased from 15 to 25 °C and then decreased at 30 °C. The highest instantaneous attack rate (a) for A. gifuensis was at 25 °C for the 2 models, 1.3203 ± 0.0415 d-1 for HDE and 4.295e+03 d-1 for RRPE. The handling time (...