Exploitation of egg parasitoids for control of potential pests in vegetable ecosystems in India

In vegetable ecosystem the egg parasitoids are mainly Trichogrammatids (Trichchogramma,Trichogrammatoidea) on Lepidoptera, Secelionids (Telenomus, Trissolcus) on Lepidoptera andHetroptera, and Mymarids on leafhopper and thrips. Trichogramma chilonis is found promising as anatural and augmentation control agent for several lepidopteran pests. Considerable progress hasbeen made on utilizing kairomones for improving the performance of T. chilonis. Release systemsshould be refined to match with host abundance pattern, while a novel method of sprayingparasitized eggs has been found promising. Inundative releases of T. chilonis , T. brasiliensis andT. pretosium for Helicoverpa control in tomato, Okra and chilli, besides T. chilonis for Leucinodesorbonailis on brinjal have been demonstrated to be effective. Similar promising results havebeen obtained from Trichogrammatoidea bactrae and T. brassicae release in controlling Plutellaxylostella on cabbage. Integration of egg parasitoid release with NVP, neem and pheromone traphas been shown possible in IPM modules. The scope of mass rearing of Telenomus remus on Corcyracephalonica has been demonstrated, while further improvements in their efficiency are required.The present constraint in mass production and storage of T. achaea may merit attention. Furtherresearch may focus also on strains collection for stress adaptation, host searching and also on fielddispersal and utilization of semiochemicals for improving the field performance of mass- releasedparasitoids.