Kennedy Ningthoujam, Ziljia Moirangthem, Mahesh Pathak, Jyotim Gogoi, Mareena Sorokhaibam
Eggs of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella (L.) and the Indian meal moth, Corcyra cephalonica Stalion were evaluated as hosts for mass-rearing Trichogramma pretiosum Riley. The efficacy of the Trichogramma reared on both the hosts were studied on fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith). Parasitoids developed from each source were evaluated on the source host and on the target host, S. frugiperda. T. prestiosum reared on the two factitious hosts viz., C. cephalonica and G. mellonella were able to parasitize S. frugiperda eggs under laboratory conditions. Parasitoids reared on G. mellonella (GF) exhibited significantly higher parasitism rate and lower host larval emergence than the parasitoids reared on C. cephalonica (CF) when tested against S. frugiperda. The results demonstrate that the choice of rearing host influences the parasitism efficiency, host suppression, and fitness traits of T. pretiosum. These findings support the development of optimized mass-rearing protocols and the application of this parasitoid in biological control strategies targeting S. frugiperda.