The Biotic Associations of CockroachesRoth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Science
The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches
Roth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Cockroaches; Insects -- Ecology
Schmidt (1937) deduced that _T. hagenowii_ was a primary parasite of
eggs of _P. americana_ because the parasitized oötheca was obtained from
a cage covered with screen too fine to permit entry of a larger
parasite, such as an evaniid. As noted above, we have reared _T.
hagenowii_ for more than 30 generations on cockroach eggs, none of which
was ever exposed to parasitization by an evaniid. If _T. hagenowii_ were
ever hyperparasitic on _Evania_, this relationship would be accidental,
the eulophid happening to oviposit into an oötheca already containing an
evaniid, or vice versa.
_Adult behavior._--The male mates soon after becoming adult; he mounts
the female from behind, grasps her antennae with his own antennae, and
vibrates his wings during copulation. Mating is accomplished in from
"several" to 20 seconds (Takahashi, 1924; Edmunds, 1955). The adults are
positively phototactic and are capable of hopping for some distance
(Edmunds, 1955). The females feed on material that oozes through the
oviposition puncture (Roth and Willis, 1954b). Females lived 10 days
(Seín, 1923). Without food, females lived 7.8 days and males 3.4 days,
but when fed dilute honey females lived 12.5 days (Usman, 1949). Females
lived 5-11 days (Roth and Willis, 1954b). Fed water and sugar, the wasps
lived 2-6 weeks at 65°F. (Cameron, 1955). Without food, 9 females lived
an average of 3.5 days and 9 males an average of 1.7 days, but when fed
on raisins, 9 females lived an average of 25 days and 9 males 15 days
(Edmunds, 1955). In Formosa there were six generations from April to
December (Maki, 1937).
In Hawaii, Severin and Severin (1915) caught 571 _T. hagenowii_ in 10
kerosene traps that were set up to sample populations of Mediterranean
fruitfly. Apparently the parasite is attracted by the odor of kerosene.
_Oviposition._--The female wasp explores the surface of the oötheca with
vibrating antennae (Edmunds, 1955). She bends her abdomen ventrad and
repeatedly touches the surface of the oötheca with her valvae; when she
finds an acceptable oviposition site, the wasp unsheathes her ovipositor
and bores through the wall of the oötheca (Roth and Willis, 1954b). The
wasp deposited her eggs in 2-5 minutes (Edmunds, 1955). Wasps oviposited
(pl. 34, C) into young or old eggs of _P. americana_ (Roth and Willis,
1954b). A single wasp parasitized more than one oötheca and more than
one wasp oviposited into the same oötheca (Roth and Willis, 1954b;
Edmunds, 1955). We found freshly laid wasp eggs in 34 empty but
previously parasitized oöthecae from which the wasps had emerged (Roth
and Willis, 1954b).
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