Effect of Dendranthema on Cotesia plutellae Parasitism in Brassicaceous Crops： Control of Diamondback Moth （DBM）, Plutella xylostella （Linnaeus）

The parasitism rate and the caterpillar infestation were studied by intercropping Dendranthema flowering plants with some cruciferous crops. These flowering plants increased significantly the rate of Cotesia plutellae parasitism in the adj acent plots. It reached to 42.96% in treatment plot and 18.19% in the control. Although there was no significant difference in no. of diamondback moth （DBM） larvae per plant, 29.09% in population reduction was occurred in treatment plot. Abundance of cabbage looper and armyworm were also lower in adjacent plot. But, small white butterfly population （23.46%） was higher in adjacent plots as the result of Dendranthema plant. From the present experiment, Dendranthema flowering plants should be cultivated in Brasssicaceous crops for the control of DBM by providing the essential resources to larval parasitoid C. plutellae adults and then, this plant can be used as attractive plant in the control of small white butterfly. Serious elimination （Rating 4） of candidate insecticides to adult C. plutellae was observed at their recommendation doses. Among them, less toxic effect to C. plutellae was occurred in O,O-dimethyl S-methylcarbamoylmethyl which is the highest LC50 （4,765 ppm） to DBM by leaf-disc bioassay method and the lowest LC50 （2,903 pprn） was found in marlathion. It was occurred that the test strain have resistance to the recommended dose of marlathion （1,243 ppm） and O,O-dimethyl S-methylcarbamoylmethyl （3,750 ppm）.

Electroantennogram and behavioral responses of Cotesia plutellae to plant volatiles

Plant volatiles have been demonstrated to play an important role in regulat- ing the behavior of Cotesia plutellae, a major larval parasitoid of the diamondback moth （DBM）, Plutella xylostella, but little is currently known about the function of each volatile and their mixtures. We selected 13 volatiles of the DBM host plant, a cruciferous veg- etable, to study the electroantennogram （EAG） and behavioral responses of C. plutellae. EAG responses to each of the compounds generally increased with concentration. Strong EAG responses were to 100 μL/mL of trans-2-hexenal, benzaldehyde, nonanal and cis-3- hexenol, and 10/zL/mL of trans-2-hexenal and benzaldehyde with the strongest response provoked by trans-2-hexenal at 100μL/mL. In the Y-tube olfactometer, C. plutellae, was significantly attracted by 1μL/mL of trans-2-hexenal and benzaldehyde.β-caryophyllene, cis-3-hexenol or trans-2-hexenal significantly attracted C. plutellae at 10μL/mL, while nonanal, benzyl alcohol, cis-3-hexenol or benzyl cyanide at 100μL/mL significantly at- tracted C. plutellae. Trans-2-hexenal significantly repelled C. plutellae at 100 μL/mL. EAG of C. plutellae showed strong responses to all mixtures made of five various com- pounds with mixtures 3 （trans-2-hexenal, benzaldehyde, nonanal, cis-3-hexenol, benzyl cyanide, farnesene, eucalyptol） and 4 （trans-2-hexenal, benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol, （R）- （＋）-limonene,β-ionone, farnesene, eucalyptol） significantly attracting C. plutellae. These findings demonstrate that the behavior of C. plutellae can be affected either by individual compounds or mixtures of plant volatiles, suggesting a potential of using plant volatiles to improve the efficiency of this parasitoid for biocontrol ofP. xylostella.

Baculoviral p94 homologs encoded in Cotesia plutellae bracovirus suppress both immunity and development of the diamondback moth, Plutellae xylostella

Polydnaviruses （PDVs） are a group of insect DNA viruses, which exhibit a mutual symbiotic relationship with their specific host wasps. Moreover, most encapsidated genes identified so far in PDVs share homologies with insect-originated genes, but not with virus-originated genes. In the meantime, PDVs associated with 2 wasp genera Cotesia and Glytapanteles encode some genes presumably originated from other viruses. Cotesia plutellae bracovirus （CpBV） encodes 4 genes homologous to baculoviral p94： CpBV- E94k1, CpB V-E94k2, CpB V-E94k3, and CpB V-E94k4. This study was conducted to predict the origin of CpB V-E94ks by comparing their sequences with those ofbaculoviral orthologs and to determine the physiological functions by their transient expressions in nonparasitized larvae and subsequent specific RNA interference. Our phylogenetic analysis indicated that CpBV-E94ks were clustered with other E94ks originated from different PDVs and shared high similarity with betabaculoviral p94s. These 4 CpBV genes were expressed during most developmental stages of the larvae of Plutella xylostella parasitized by C. plutellae. Expression of these 4 E94ks was mainly detected in hemocytes and fat body. Subsequent functional analysis by in vivo transient expression showed that all 4 viral genes significantly inhibited both host immune and developmental processes. These results suggest that CpB 11- E94ks share an origin with betabaculoviral p94s and play parasitic roles in suppressing host immune and developmental processes.

Seasonal changes of resistance to fenvalerate and cypermethrin in the larval parasitoid Cotesia plutellae （Hymenoptera： Braconidae）

The seasonal changes of insecticide resistance and stability in hymenopteran Cotesia plutellae, collected from Jianxin, Fuzhou-City, and Shangjie, Minhou-County, Fujian, China, were assessed by using a dry residual film method. The resistance to two insecticides in the field populations of C. plutellae was not stable under insecticide-free conditions in the insectarium. Compared with susceptible F11 progeny of C. plutellae in the insectarium, the resistance ratios （RR） in F0 parents were 18.4 for fenvalerate and 11.4 for cypermethrin based on LC50 at 9 hours, and 32.8 for fenvalerate and 28.5 for cypermethrin based on LC50 at 24 hours when the parasitoids were left in contact with the insecticides for 1 hour and mortalities were recorded at 9 and 24 hours, respectively. However, the RR in a field population of C. plutellae were 9.2 for fenvalerate and 12.7 for cypermethrin, if the parasitoids were left in contact with the insecticides for 24 hours. The resistances to the two pyrethroids in other field populations collected from Jianxin and Shangjie from November 2000 and July 2004 were also determined. Significant seasonal variations of resistance to the two insecticides in the field populations of C. plutellae were found. The RR were 3.0-18.4 for fenvalerate and 4.8-20.6 for cypermethrin in Jianxin populations from November 2000 to April 2002 based on LC50 at 9 h, and 2.3-13.6 for fenvalerate and 3.6-16.0 for cypermethrin in Shangjie populations from May 2002 to July 2004 based on LC50 at 24 hours. The resistance levels were high in spring and autumn and decreased sharply in summer. In addition, significant recovery from the knocked-down caused by the insecticides was found in the F0 and field populations of C. plutellae which were resistant to fenvalerate and cypermethrin if the parasitoids were left in contact with the pyrethroids for 1 hour. However, no recovery was found in susceptible F11 progeny.

GENOMIC FEATURES OF COTESIA PLUTELLAE POLYDNAVIRUS

Polydnavirus was purified from the calyx fluid of Cotesia plutellae ovary. The genomic features of C. plutellae polydnavirus (CpPDV) were investigated. The viral genome consists of at least 12 different segments and the aggregate genome size is a lower estimate of 80kbp. By partial digestion of CpPDV DNA with BamHI and subsequent ligation with BamHI-cut plasmid Bluescript, a representative library of CpPDV genome was obtained.