Fecha de publicación: -- Fuente: PubMed "honey" Insects. 2026 Sep 21;17(9):976. doi: 10.3390/insects17090976.ABSTRACTTrichopria drosophilae is a cosmopolitan pupal parasitoid of drosophilid pests, including the globally destructive Drosophila suzukii. Improving parasitoid fitness through nutritional supplementation is a promising strategy for biological control, yet the suitability of field-available food resources remains largely unexplored. Here, we assessed how adult diet influences longevity, survival, parasitism, offspring production, and sex ratio of T. drosophilae. Seven dietary treatments were tested: water control, 10% honey solution, banana pulp, blueberry pulp, cherry pulp, Orychophragmus violaceus flowers alone, and flowers plus water. Fruit pulps, especially cherry, dramatically prolonged adult longevity to over 28 days, matching or surpassing the honey standard. Wasps fed O. violaceus flowers alone survived only approximately five days; however, providing water together with flowers restored survival to a level comparable to the water control, indicating that water deprivation was an important (at least partial) cause of this short lifespan, and no evidence was found that O. violaceus flowers provide accessible nectar. In a density-dependent parasitism assay across six host densities (5-30 pupae), a significant diet-by-density interaction was detected: parasitism rates were low at low host densities and increased with host density, whereas at intermediate and high densities (15-30 hosts), fruit-fed wasps parasitized significantly more hosts than the water control (blueberry at 15 hosts; banana at 20 hosts; all three fruit treatments at 25 and 30 hosts). Across all densities, fruit-fed wasps parasitized significantly more hosts overall than those receiving water or honey alone. Consistently, total offspring and female emergence were greater in fruit-fed groups than in water-fed wasps. Offspring sex ratio was unaffected by diet. These results demonstrate that fruit pulps are highly effective nutritional resources that enhance both survival and reproductive success of T. drosophilae in a density-dependent manner, whereas O. violaceus flowers alone are insufficient to sustain parasitoid survival. Our findings highlight the potential of fruit resources as natural food subsidies for parasitoids and underscore the need to consider floral accessibility when selecting plants for conservation biological control.PMID:42783343 | DOI:10.3390/insects17090976