Symposium on Trichogrammaand other egg
parasites (Voegele et al., 1988), in five papers
by Chinese in Wajnberg and Vinson (1991)
(third symposium) and in four papers by
Chinese in Wajnberg (1995) (fourth sympo-
sium). Details are not described here
because very few papers specifically
address quality control and most of the use-
ful components of the Chinese quality-
control studies are included in the present
guidelines for Trichogrammaand other egg
parasitoids given in Chapter 19. An excep-
tion is a simple quality control method that
I saw demonstrated in one of the
Trichogrammamass-production units in the
Biocontrol Station of Shun-de County, near
the town of Ghuanzhou, Province of
Guangdong, China. Parasitoids were reared
on silkworm eggs, adult parasitoids were
allowed to emerge on the dark side of the
room and fresh host eggs were offered on
the light side of the room near a window
about 3 m away from the dark side, so the
freshly emerged parasitoids had to fly sev-
eral metres before they could parasitize
hosts. In this way, non-flying parasitoids
were prevented from reproducing (J.C. van
Lenteren, Guangdong, China, November
1986, personal observation).
Australian producers are applying one
full quality control guideline – the one for
Aphytisas specified in Chapter 19 – and are
using elements of the other IOBC/EC guide-
lines described in Chapter 19. There are no
Australian publications on quality control. A
set of guidelines for natural enemies that are
specifically applied in Australia is in devel-
opment. Genetic diversity and rejuvenation
of laboratory material with field-collected
natural enemies form a specific point of
interest of Australian producers (all infor-
mation from D. Papacek, Australia, April
2001, personal communication). In New
Zealand, elements of the IOBC/EC guide-
lines are used for quality control of about
five species of natural enemies, and critical-
point standards for quality checks during
the production process are in development;
there are no publications from New Zealand
on quality control (R. Rountree, New
Zealand, April 2001, personal communica-
tion). In Japan, elements of the IOBC/EC
guidelines are used for quality control of
several species of natural enemies that are
imported from Europe or produced in
Japan; there are no Japanese publications on
quality control (E. Yano, Japan, April 2001,
personal communication). Elements of qual-
ity control are applied in India to evaluate
the quality of mass-reared Trichogramma
(Kaushik and Arora, 1998; Swamiappan et
al., 1998).
The Insectary Society of Southern Africa
is actively developing a set of minimum
quality control standards for insects com-
mercially for sale as biocontrol agents and
other purposes, developments are discussed
in biennial insect-rearing workshops and
progress is reported in the proceedings of
these workshops (see, for example, Conlong,
1995) (D. Conlong, South Africa, April 2001,
personal communication). In several other
African countries, such as Benin, Kenya,
Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia, quality control
is applied (Conlong, 1995; Conlong and
Mugoya, 1996; van Lenteren, Africa,
1983–2001, personal observation), but it is
not easy to trace published material provid-
ing detail about the methodology, with the
exception of work done at the International
Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (e.g.
Yaninek and Herren, 1989).
The situation concerning quality control
in Latin America is even less clear than in
other areas of the world. Recently, two rather
detailed papers appeared on quality control
of a tachinid parasitoid (Aleman et al., 1998)
and predatory mites (Ramos et al., 1998), as
performed in Cuba. Also, a book edited by
Bueno (2000) provides examples of quality
control for microbials, predatory mites and
predatory and parasitic insects in Brazil, but
few details about methodology are provided.
Based on the vast areas under augmentative
biological control in Latin America (van
Lenteren and Bueno, 2003), I suppose that
there is much more done on quality control
than could be traced in the literature.The Objectives of Quality Control
Quality control programmes are applied to
mass-reared organisms to maintain theNeed for Quality Control of Biocontrol Agents 7