Impact of Adult Size and Sib, Conspecific, and Random Mating in Trichopria ... 49
Impact of Sib, Conspecific, and Random
Mating
Mating combinations were: (i) mating between the
progeny individuals of a single mother (sib mat-
ing), (ii) mating between female progeny of moth-
er A and male progeny of mother B (♀A × ♂B) and
vice versa (♀B × ♂A), and (iii) mating between
male and female progenies of several mothers.
The number of pupae parasitized, parasitoid
developmental duration, progeny production,
and sex ratio were obtained in all combinations.
The data were analyzed using one-way Analysis
of Variance (ANOVA) followed by Duncan’s
multiple range test (DMRT). The analysis was
carried out using SPSS ver. 10.00 (SPSS Inc.,
Chicago, IL, USA).
Results and Discussion
The mean number of host puparia parasitized
by Trichopria sp. were significantly different
( P < 0.01) among all the mating combinations in-
volving big and small males and females of the
parasitoid which ranged from 3.00 ± 0.00 (B♀ ×
B♂) to 2.00 ± 0.00 (Table 1 ). The duration of the
parasitoid life cycle in the treatments did not sig-
nificantly differ among treatments and varied be-
tween 22.37 ± 0.18 (B♀ × B♂) and 22.25 ± 0.16
days (S♀ × S♂). With reference to male, female,
and total progenies produced by Trichopria sp.,
the mean numbers were significantly different
among the treatments ( P < 0.01) and varied
from 68.62 ± 2.13 (S♀ × B♂) to 25.75 ± 1.33
(B♀ × S♂), from 127.00 ± 1.87 (B♀ × B♂) to
56.37 ± 1.43 (B♀ × S♂), and from 175.00 ± 2.82
(B♂ × S♀) to 82.12 ± 2.06 (B♀ × S♂), respec-
tively. The number of parasitoid female/male
(sex ratio) of the parasitoid in the progeny was
significantly higher (2.77 ± 0.09) in mating com-
bination involving B♂ × B♀ compared to S♀ ×
S♂ combination (1.55 ± 0.04). The sex ratio of
the progenies from B♂ × B♀ was significantly
greater ( P < 0.01) than the progenies from other
mating combinations (Table 1 ).
Significantly higher ( P < 0.01) number of host
puparia (4.00 ± 0.00) was parasitized by Tricho-
pria sp., when random mating than the parasit-
oid females mated with sibs (2.00 ± 0.00) and
conspecifics (3.00 ± 0.00). The developmental
duration of the parasitoid among various mat-
ing combinations was not significantly different
among treatments and ranged from 22.37 ± 0.18
(random and ♀B × ♂A) to 22.12 ± 0.12 d (sib
mating). Regarding progeny production, sig-
nificantly ( P < 0.01) higher number of male
progeny was obtained from the conspecific
mating combinations compared to sib and ran-
dom mating. Similar result ( P < 0.01) was seen
with regard to female (240.12 ± 0.74) and total
progenies (333.25 ± 0.97) generated from the
random-mated females. Among the mating com-
binations, the results of the sib mating were sig-
nificantly inferior ( P < 0.01) with respect to male
(51.25 ± 1.43), female (63.50 ± 1.55), and totalTable 1 Effect of size of Trichopria sp. on mating efficiency and progeny production
Type of mating No. of puparia
parasitizeda
Developmental
duration (days)Progeny production (no.) Sex ratio
Male Female Total (♀♀/♂^ )
B♀ × B♂ 3.00 ± 0.00b 22.37 ± 0.18 45.87 ± 1.00c 127.00 ± 1.87b 172.87 ± 1.60b 2.77 ± 0.09b
B♀ × S♂ 2.00 ± 0.00c 22.25 ± 0.16 25.75 ± 1.33e 56.37 ± 1.43e 82.12 ± 2.06d 2.23 ± 0.13c
S♀ × B♂ 2.00 ± 0.00c 22.37 ± 0.18 68.62 ± 2.13b 106.37 ± 1.33c 175.0 ± 2.82b 1.55 ± 0.04d
S♀ × S♂ 2.00 ± 0.00c 22.25 ± 0.16 39.87 ± 2.09d 77.62 ± 0.92d 117.50 ± 2.52c 2.00 ± 0.10c
F test NS
Data are the means of ten replications (mean ± SE)
Mean values followed by the same superscript in columns are not significantly different from each other P > 0.05
B♀ × B♂—big female × big male, B♀ × S♂—big female × small male
S♀ × B♂—small female × big male, S♀ × S♂—small female × small male
NS nonsignificant
Significant at 1 %
aOut of four puparia provided for parasitism