for development guidelines for new species
of natural enemies and adaptation of old
guidelines.
Future Additions to Current Quality
Control Guidelines
The producers of natural enemies work
together with biological control researchers
to develop flight tests and field-performance
tests. The importance of these flight tests has
been discussed by several authors (see intro-
duction and Bigler (1994)), but testing of
these aspects is still rare. Flight tests are sup-
posed to be essential to determine quality if
the natural enemy has been reared under
conditions where flight was not needed to
find hosts or prey, which is often the case
under crowded mass-rearing conditions.
Flight tests are also needed when the natural
enemy is seriously manipulated during mass
rearing and preparation for shipment (e.g.
removal of pupae from leaves and gluing
pupae to cardboard cards) and when storage
periods are long (see Chapter 12). Correlation
between values obtained at laboratory test-
ing and field performance is important to be
able to select a limited set of laboratory crite-
ria that give meaningful information about
performance after release.
Bigler (1994) provides information about
laboratory testing and field performance.
Also Silvaet al.(2000) describe and use an
interesting test that was initially developed
by Greenberg (1991) to evaluate the search-
ing and dispersal ability of parasitoids in a
maze in the laboratory. Silva et al.(2000)Quality Control Guidelines for Biocontrol Agents 269Table 19.2.General quality-control criteria for mass-reared natural enemies.
Criteria already in use
Quantity: number of live natural-enemy organisms in container
Sex ratio: minimum percentage females (male-biased ratio may indicate poor rearing
conditions)
Emergence: emergence rate to be specified for all organisms sold as eggs or pupae
Fecundity: number of offspring produced during a certain period (for parasitoids, fecundity is
also an indication of the host-kill rate)
Longevity: minimum longevity in days
Parasitism: number of hosts parasitized during a certain period
Predation: number of prey eaten during a certain period
Adult size: hind tibia length of adults, sometimes pupal size (size is often a good indication
for longevity, fecundity and parasitization/predation capacity)
Criteria to be added in near future
Flight: short- or long-range flight capacity
Field performance: capacity to locate and consume prey or parasitize hosts in crop under field
conditions
Comments
● Quality control is done under standardized test conditions of temperature (usually 22 ± 2°C or 25 ±
2°C), relative humidity (usually 75 ± 10%) and light regime (usually 16L : 8D), that are specified for
each test
● All numbers/ratios/sizes should be mentioned on the container or packaging material
● Fecundity, longevity and predation capacity tests can often be combined
● Expiration date for each shipment should be given on packaging material
● Guidelines should be usable for all product formulations
Original designers: names of the persons who made the first design of the guideline
Coordinators: names of the persons who collect new information for the guideline and will adapt
the guideline when needed; (e-mail) addresses of coordinators can be found at:
http://www.agrsci.dk/plb/iobc/sting/sting23.htm (who is who in biological control)
Updated guidelines: will be available at http://www.AMRQC.org
L, hours light; D, hours dark.