توسعه یک رژیم غذایی مصنوعی برای پرورش انبوه سن سبز پسته Acrosternum arabicum Wagner (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae): بهینه‎سازی برای تولید انبوه زنبورهای پارازیتویید

Egg parasitoids are important regulatory agents of stink bug populations, and can serve as a suitable alternative to the chemical methods commonly used by farmers today. Artificial diets play a crucial role in enhancing host egg production for industrial purposes. These diets improve efficiency and quality while often reducing production costs.This research aims to develop an artificial diet for mass rearing of the pistachio green stink bug, Acrosternum arabicum Wagner (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), as the host of the egg parasitoid wasps (Scelionidae and Encyrtidae) under laboratory conditions (temperature 27±1°C, relative humidity 60±10%, and photoperiod 16 hours light: 8 hours darkness). we compared the life table parameters of the artificial and composite diets using the two-sex, age-stage life table theory after three generations. Based on the preliminary studies, a combination of wheat germ, green beans, sunflower and peanut seeds, yeast extract, sugar, vitamin solution, and water was introduced as an artificial diet. The results show that there was no significant difference in sex ratio or longevity of each stage between the artificial and composite diets. However, the mean fecundity of females fed on the artificial diet was about 139.01±26.54 (eggs), which represented a significant increase compared to the fecundity of females fed on the composite diet (78.28±11.16 eggs) (p=0.05, t-test). Additionally, main parameters of life table (r, R0, T, and λ) for artificial and composite diets were about 0.148±0.0055 d-1, 139.01±26.54 eggs, 34.03±0.599 days and 1.16±0.0063 d-1 and 0.111±0.003 d-1, 78.28±11.16 eggs, 39.54±0.47 days and 1.12±0.0039 d-1, respectively. There was a significant difference between these four parameters on both diets. The survival rate and the life expectancy of Insects reared on artificial diet (0.84±0.01 and 39.375±1.63 respectively) were also higher than Insects reared of composite diets (0.58±0.03 and 36.94±4.13 respectively).These findings suggest that artificial diet can be recommended as a suitable alternative to the composite diet in the mass-producing host eggs. This would be beneficial for the large-scale rearing of egg parasitoids from two families, Encyrtidae and Seclionidae which are used in applied biological control programs to manage the stink bugs in pistachio orchards.