Chemical Stimuli in Host-Seeking Behavior of Macrocentrus grandii (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

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Abstract
Olfactory tests demonstrated that female and male Macrocentrus grandii Goidanich are attracted to allelochemicals (kairomones and synomones) from both their host, the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), and its host, the corn plant, Zea mays L. Cut corn stems were the most attractive to female M. grandii, but females also were attracted to frass, larvae, feces, and the oral secretion of host larvae reared on corn. When European corn borers were reared on artificial diet, the same components were attractive to female wasps, except that larval frass repelled. When M. grandii females contacted frass, feces, oral secretions, silk, larval cuticle, or exuviae from larvae reared on corn or artificial diet, behavioral changes (antennal palpation [antennation], ovipositor unsheathing and ovipositor probing) occurred except when frass from larvae reared on artificial diet was contacted. M. grandii females also antennated corn plant upon contact and a few unsheathed their ovipositor and probed the damaged area. These behaviors were also elicited when M. grandii females contacted a substrate in the presence of volatiles from frass, oral secretion, or cut corn plants.

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