Insecticide susceptibility of surviving Cotesia plutellae (Hym: Braconidae) and Diaeretiella rapae (M'Intosh) (Hym: Aphidiidae) as affected by sublethal insecticide dosages on host insects

The effects of sublethal dosages of insecticides applied to Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae) and Lipaphis erysimi Kaltenbach (Homoptera: Aphidiidae) on the insecticide susceptibility of the surviving endoparasitoids, Cotesia plutellae Kurdjumov (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Diaeretiella rapae (M'Intosh) (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae), were studied in Shangjie, Minhou, China. The susceptibility to methamidophos and the sensitivity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) to methamidophos and dichlorvos in the adults of host insects were substantially lower than those in the two parasitoids. The host insects were treated with sublethal dosages of methamidophos in P. xylostella and of methamidophos and avermectin in L. erysimi. The cocoon formation in the two parasitoids decreased significantly, from 35.0% (control) to 13.0% (with methamidophos treatment) for C. plutellae; from 20.6% (control) to 9.0% (with methamidophos treatment) and from 24.3% (control) to 16.7% (with avermectin treatment) for D. rapae. The susceptibility to methamidophos of the resultant emerging adults of the two parasitoids was found to be significantly lower than that of the control when the parasitoids were left in contact with the same dosages of methamidophos. The average AChE activity inhibition by methamidophos and dichlorvos in 34-60 adults of the two parasitoids that emerged from the treatments (15.1% and 31.8% respectively for C. plutellae, and 21.1% and 26.9% for D. rapae) was also significantly lower than those of the controls (55.4% and 48.3% respectively for C. plutellae, and 42.9% and 51.7% for D. rapae). The bimolecular rate constant (k(i)) values of AChE to methamidophos and dichlorvos in the adults of parasitoids without the insecticide treatment were 1.78 and 1.56 times as high as those that emerged from the host insects treated with methamidophos for C. plutellae, and 1.91 and 1.66 times as high as those in the case of D. rapae. It is suggested that there is a difference in AChE sensitivity to insecticides between the resultant emerging parasitoids with and without insecticide pretreatment. Furthermore, the introduction of the insecticides to the host insects could be an important factor in the insecticide resistance development of the endoparasitoids. The natural selectivity would favour the parasitoids that had developed an insensitivity to the insecticide(s).