Trichogramma pretiosum Riley, 1879 storage in low temperatures as release logistic in applied biological control

• Grant number: 17/24164-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2018
• End date: October 12, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy
• Principal Investigator: José Roberto Postali Parra
• Grantee: Mikaela Terra Souza
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/16749-7 - Effect of host and microhabitat availability on brood-guarding behavior of Telenomus podisi Ashmead and Trissolcus cosmopeplae (Gahan), BE.EP.IC

Abstract

The biological control is getting known in Brazil as component of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), since climate here favors the development of pests, with the selection of resistant insects due to the systematic and irrational use of agrichemicals, without the use of measures like refugee area, in the case of transgenic plants, to rationalize the pests control. Due to the use of BC in the country, including the greater percentages than in other countries, rise companies marketing biological control agents like Trichogramma pretiosum Riley, 1879, parasitoid on which this research is based on. At these companies, one of the challenges is storage and transportation logistics of such microorganisms, what is not a problem to shelf life microorganisms (fungae, bacteria, virus, etc.). The microorganisms must be stored in periods that they are not being used (off season, for example) or during the transportation from one region to another, because they may emerge before time and material can be lost, or have its quality, as a control agent, reduced. Techniques being used lately are not defined, since low temperatures used may interfere in biological parameters of the insect, influencing, in consequence, to its performance on the field. The present study seeks to evaluate the effect of these low temperatures on the biological characteristics of T. pretiosum giving scientific subsidies for the storage and logistics of the biological control agent. (AU)