Campoletis sonorensis: 1 Maintenance of a Population on Tobacco Budworms 2 in a Field Cage 3

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Abstract
Releases of 835 mated adult female Campoletis sonorensis (Cameron) at a rate of 50–100/day for 10 days against an introduced population of tobacco budworms, Heliothis virescens (F.), on cotton in a 0.4-acre field cage resulted in 85–95% parasitization of tobacco budworm larvae for ca. 2 months. As host pressure was maintained by daily releases of adult moths, C. sonorensis was eventually replaced as the major regulator of the tobacco budworm population by parasitization of host eggs by Trichogramma sp. and predation of host eggs and small larvae by Orius insidiosus (Say). The C. sonorensis population was also greatly affected by the hyperparasites Catolaccus aeneoviridis (Girault) and Ceratosmicra immaculata (Cresson); and the predator Collops vittatus (Say) consumed up to 70% of the cocoons of C. sonorensis . Nevertheless, the beneficial species markedly suppressed the tobacco budworm population throughout the experiment. Weekly average temperatures between 80 and 86°F did not appear to reduce the efficiency of C. sonorensis . The sex ratio of parasites produced in a field cage was near 1:1 as compared to 1:4 in a culture maintained in the laboratory.