AN ARTIFICIAL HOST: ENCAPSULATED SYNTHETIC MEDIUM FOR IN VITRO OVIPOSITION AND REARING THE ENDOPARASITOID ITOPLECTIS CONQUISITOR (HYMENOPTERA: ICHNEUMONIDAE)

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Abstract
This note reports the first in vitro oviposition and rearing of a parasitic insect, the endoparasitoid wasp Itoplectis conquisitor (Say), a male, on an artificial host consisting of an encapsulated synthetic, or meridic (Dougherty 1959, p. 53), medium. Parasitic insects, of course, have been reared in vitro on meridic diets (House 1954; Yazgan 1972; Thompson 1975). Some were reported to oviposit into artificial objects (Arthur et al. 1972; Rajendram and Hagen 1974; Hoffman et al. 1975). Trichogramma pretiosum Riley laid viable eggs and development to adults occurred in small wax-resin spheres filled with host haemolymph (Hoffman et al. 1975).