Goniozus legneri (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae): Development, Oviposition, and Longevity in Relation to Temperature

Goniozus legneri Gordh is known as a parasite of the carob moth, Spectrobates ceratoniae (Zeller), and of the navel orangeworm, Amyelois transitella (Walker). In this study its development on the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), was determined at nine constant and three fluctuating temperatures. The duration of the egg-to-prepupal stage varied from 12.8 days at 17°C to 3.1 days at 35°C. The pupal-to-adult stage required an additional 35 days at 17°C and 5.0 days at 35°C. This parasite has ca. 2.5 generations for each generation of its pink bollworm host. At 30°C females live ca. 20.1 days and parasitize ca. 10.9 larvae producing 67.7 cocoons, a much lower value than that reported by others. The heat tolerance, short life cycle, and host searching characteristics of G. legneri indicate that the parasite has potential for release to regulate pink bollworm populations in cotton in Arizona and California.