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Research Article
Received: 15 March 2013 Revised: 15 July 2013 Accepted article published: 26 July 2013 Published online in Wiley Online Library: 22 August 2013
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/ps.3619
Factors inuencing supercooling capacity
of the koinobiont endoparasitoid Venturia
canescens (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae)
Stefanos S. Andreadis,
a,b
Christos G. Spanoudis,
a
Christos G. Athanassiou
c
and Matilda Savopoulou-Soultani
a
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Venturia canescens is aparthenogenetic koinobiont endoparasitoidof several pyralidmothlarvaethat aremajor
pests of stored products. Low temperatures have been extensively used to control stored-product insects as an alternative
to the application of traditional pesticides. However, most studies have focused on the cold hardiness prole of the major
stored-product pests. The objective of this study was to investigate how factors such as age, food, host availability and
acclimation affect the cold tolerance of V. canescens by determining its supercooling capacity.
RESULTS: Youngadults displayedsignicantlylower supercoolingpoints (SCPs) thanolder adults, irrespectiveof theavailability
of a host. Host availability had a moderate effect on supercooling, whereas food consumption resulted in a signicant
enhancement of SCP. Acclimation to low temperatures increased the supercooling capacity considerably. Furthermore, an
increase in the duration of exposure to acclimation temperature resulted in lower SCPs.
CONCLUSION: Adults of V. canescens displayed an enhanced ability to supercool, however, they appear to be less cold tolerant
than their respective hosts. This information would be useful in determining the potential of using V. canescens as a biological
agent in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs, taking into consideration the adverse effects of lowtemperatures on its
survival.
c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry
Keywords: Ichneumonidae; Ephestia kuehniella; supercooling point; age; food; acclimation
1 INTRODUCTION
Venturia canescens Gravenhorst (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae)
is a parthenogenetic solitary, koinobiont endoparasitoid that
develops in the larvae of several pyralid moths, which are major
pests in stored products, such as Ephestia kuehniella Zeller,
Ephestia elutella (H ubner), Plodia interpunctella (H ubner) and
Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).
1
Several
laboratory studies have been conducted using this parasitoid as
a model organism because of its rapid mass rearing and its large
body size, which allows several observations that are not always
possible with other parasitoid species.
25
It is widely known that temperature has a major impact on
insects. Nearly every aspect of an insects life is inuenced by
temperature, including its biology, behavior, physiology and
evolution. The exposure of insects to lowor subzero temperatures
is a major factor that should be considered as having a great
impact ontheir life table characteristics andbehavior. The capacity
of an organismto survive exposure to lowtemperatures is referred
toas coldhardiness or coldtolerance. Avariety of factors affect this
capacity, including development stage, nutritional status, genetic
potential and thermal history (acclimation).
6
To estimate the cold
hardiness of an insect species various parameters should be taken
into consideration, such as the seasonal uctuation of cryoprotec-
tants, supercoolingabilityandlethal temperatures after prolonged
exposure to subzero temperatures above the supercooling point
(SCP). The SCP is dened as the temperature at which body
water spontaneously freezes and latent heat is released upon
crystallization.
7
SCP itself is inuenced by several factors. In
the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis Hubner (Lepidoptera:
Crambidae), age appeared to affect the supercooling ability of
non-diapausing larvae. Late fth instars were more supercooled
than early ones, probably due to the cessation of feeding prior
to pupation.
8
Moreover, food consumption is generally known
to have a negative effect on SCP, mainly due to the presence
of ice-nucleation bacteria.
9
Acclimation for a few days at low
temperatures considerably improved the supercooling ability of
Lobesia botrana (Denis &Schiffermuller) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae),
01
N, 24
22
C, 60 5%
relative humidity (RH), with a 16:8h light : dark photoperiod.
2.2 Determination of SCPs
Each parasitoid was placed individually into a transparent plastic
capsule (16 mm high and 7 mm in diameter) and immobilized
with cotton. A copper constant thermocouple (Digitron 2000T;
Torquay, UK) was attached to the surface of each individual,
securely positionedwitha sensor tomonitor its body temperature.
The capsule bearing the parasitoid with the sensor was placed
separately in a testtube (17.5 cm high and 1.7 cm in diameter),
which was then immersed in a circulating bath (Model 9505;
PolyScience, Niles, IL. USA) with a solution of ethylene glycol and
water (1:1). The cooling rate was set at 1
Cmin
1
with a starting
temperature of 20
C,
respectively; t =9.68; P <0.001).
3.2 Effect of age and host availability on SCP
In the absence of host, mean SCP for adults of V. canescens was
signicantly affectedby age. MeanSCPfor youngadults (15 days)
was signicantly lower than that of older adults (1020 days)
(t =3.18; P <0.01; Fig. 1). When adults were provided with host,
mean SCP decreased further for both young and older adults.
Hence, mean SCP for young adults in the presence of the host
was signicantly lower than that of older adults (t =2.22; P <0.05;
Fig. 1). Host availability hada signicant effect onthe supercooling
capacity of old adults (t =2.12; P <0.05), but not young adults
(t =1.33; P >0.05).
3.3 Effect of acclimation temperature on SCP
The results for the SCP of V. canescens adults that were acclimated
for 10 and 20 days at different temperatures are presented in
Fig. 2. In the absence of host, signicant differences in mean SCPs
were obtained among adults that were maintained for 10 days
Pest Manag Sci 2014; 70: 814818 c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ps
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t s o h h t i w t s o h t u o h t i w
Age Mean SE Minimum Maximum Age SE Minimum Maximum
young -15.9 0.2 -17.9 -14.2 un yo g
Mean
-16.5 0.4 -17.3 -13.6
old -14.2 0.5 -16.6 -9.5 old -15.5 0.3 -15.5 -12.1
old young
-5
-10
-15
-20
old young
S
u
p
e
r
c
o
o
l
i
n
g
p
o
i
n
t
(
C
)
Figure 1. Boxplot and results of descriptive analysis of SCP of young (15 days) and old (1020 days) adults of V. canescens in the presence or absence of
E. kuehniella larvae (n =20). The line between a box marks the median, the boundaries of a box indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles, error bars indicate
the 10th and 90th percentiles, and the points represent data beyond these limits.
at room temperature, 5 and 10
C(for 10 days,
F(2, 29) =5.50, P <0.05, Fig. 2; for 20 days, F(2, 29) =4.55, P <0.05;
Fig. 2). However, no signicant differences were recorded in SCPs
among treatments that were acclimated at 10
C and 10
C in
the presence or absence of E. kuehniella larvae (n =10). The line between a box marks the median, the boundaries of a box indicate the 25th and 75th
percentiles, error bars indicate the 10th and 90th percentiles, and the points represent data beyond these limits.
younger ones, probably due to cessation of feeding prior to
pupation and evacuation of the gut.
8
Another remarkable feature
that addresses the reduced supercooling capacity of the older
adults of V. canescens is the enhanced tness cost due to the
continuous search for a host for oviposition. Energy loss through
host-seeking behavior is denitely positively correlated with age
of V. canescens adults, and this trend is expressed more vigorously
when the host is present.
4,31
Acclimation for a few days at low temperatures considerably
improves cold hardiness, although not always.
10,32,33
Similar
results have been reported for several major stored-product
insect species, with moths being generally more tolerant to
low temperatures than beetles.
13
Apart from cold hardiness,
acclimation below optimum developmental temperature is likely
to increase the survival of major stored-product insects 210
times following exposure to low temperatures, provided that the
temperature decline is gradual.
13
Allowing adults of V. canescens
to adapt to low temperatures (i.e. 5 and 10
C) resulted in a
noticeable increase in supercooling ability. Considering the
overall data, adults of V. canescens displayed an enhanced ability
to supercool, given that the mean SCP of non-acclimated adults
ranged from16.5 to 13.7
C, respectively.
8
The same trend was
observed for P. interpunctella for which SCP values for eggs, rst
instars, pupae and adults were 24.4, 23.5, 22.2 and 22.4
C,
respectively.
34
In both cases, the host appears to be more cold
tolerant than the parasitoid itself. This might have an adverse
effect on the survival of V. canescens regarding the application
of low temperatures in stored-product facilities. Furthermore,
after the low temperature interval, the increase in temperature
may allow moths to build up high rebound population densities,
without the presence of parasitoids. Additional experimental work
is needed to indicate cold tolerance of V. canescens immatures.
In summary, our results clearly demonstrate that food, age
and acclimation to low temperatures inuence the supercooling
capacity of V. canescens adults, and these factors may be
considered further in order to obtain parasitoid populations that
have the capacity to survive at temperatures close to E. kuehniella
SCP. By contrast, host availability had a moderate effect on super-
cooling capacity. Continued investigations into how well this
parasitoid tolerates low temperatures will be useful in evaluating
its potential as a biological control agent of stored-product moths
in temperate regions, but also in better understanding parasitoid
life table characteristics at low temperatures, for which very few
data are available to date.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Styliani Kamperidou for laboratory assistance
and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments. They also
express their gratitude to Christina Soultani for her language
editing services.
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