Cactoblastis cactorum's unintended arrival to Florida and its expansion in North America represent a threat to Opuntia‐based agriculture and natural ecosystems in the United States and Mexico. Apanteles opuntiarum attacks C. cactorum and is a potential biocontrol agent due to its specificity, wide distribution and occurrence. Laboratory rearing methods using excised cladodes for C. cactorum as host larvae of A. opuntiarum were developed, but require a continuous supply of cactus with a risk of microorganisms compromising the rearing. Host cues —including odour of host metabolic subproducts like faeces and chemicals emitted by the attacked plant— are the most important signals that help a parasitoid locate a host. Little attention has been paid to behavioural differences of parasitoids in the presence of hosts reared on artificial diet. Thus, the aims of the present work were to determine the effect of meridic diet for C. cactorum on parasitoid behaviour and to determine whether prior experience (previous exposure to stimuli) influences the response of A. opuntiarum towards hosts. Parasitism rates were assessed using cladodes or meridic diet as larvae food source. Behavioural experiments also evaluated the effect of prior experience (larvae or frass from larvae fed on cactus or diet) on host searching, encounter and attack of different stimulus (larvae or frass from larvae fed on cactus or diet). Parasitism behaviour of A. opuntiarum was negatively affected by the use of meridic diet to feed host larvae. Presenting parasitoids with larvae rather than their frass influenced excitatory behavioural responses in terms of contact, probing and stinging in A. opuntiarum females, whereas the effect of prior experience on the behaviours was not quite consistent. For laboratory mass‐rearing procedures of A. opuntiarum, we recommend previous contact of females with frass from cactus‐fed larvae and a piece of cactus, which showed enhanced parasitism rates.

中文翻译：

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人工饲料饲养 Cactoblastis cactorum 对 Apanteles opuntiarum 行为的影响

Cactoblastis cactorum 意外到达佛罗里达并在北美扩张，对美国和墨西哥的仙人掌农业和自然生态系统构成威胁。Apanteles opuntiarum 攻击 C. cactorum 并且由于其特异性、广泛分布和发生而成为潜在的生物防治剂。开发了使用切下的 C. cactorum 枝条作为 A. opuntiarum 宿主幼虫的实验室饲养方法，但需要持续供应仙人掌，存在微生物危害饲养的风险。宿主线索——包括宿主代谢副产物（如粪便和受攻击植物排放的化学物质）的气味——是帮助寄生物定位宿主的最重要信号。在人工饮食饲养的宿主存在下，寄生物的行为差异很少受到关注。因此，目前工作的目的是确定经络饮食对仙人掌对寄生物行为的影响，并确定先前的经验（先前接触刺激）是否影响仙人掌对寄主的反应。使用枝条或子午线饮食作为幼虫食物来源评估寄生率。行为实验还评估了先前的经验（以仙人掌或饮食为食的幼虫的幼虫或昆虫）对宿主搜索、遭遇和攻击不同刺激（来自以仙人掌或饮食为食的幼虫的幼虫或昆虫）的影响。A. opuntiarum 的寄生行为受到使用经络饮食喂养寄主幼虫的负面影响。在接触、探测和刺痛 A. opuntiarum 雌性方面，用幼虫而不是它们的 frass 呈现寄生蜂会影响兴奋性行为反应，而先前经验对行为的影响并不完全一致。对于 A. opuntiarum 的实验室大规模饲养程序，我们建议雌性之前接触过仙人掌喂养的幼虫和一片仙人掌的粪便，这表明寄生率增加。