Therophilus javanus
Creators: name: Souna, Djibril Aboubakar
name: Bokonon-Ganta, Aimé
name: Ravallec, Marc
name: Cusumano, Antonino
name: Pittendrigh, Barry Robert
name: Volkoff, Anne-Nathalie
name: Tamò, Manuele
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Therophilus
Therophilus javanus

description: 3.1. General Morphology of Therophilus javanus Female Reproductive System.
The T. javanus female reproductive system consisted of a pair of globular-shaped ovaries housing several ovarioles, a spermatheca, a Dufour’s gland, a venom gland, composed of a venom duct and two venom gland filaments, and the wasp ovipositor (Figure 2).
3.2. Impact of Host Quality on the Number of Ovarioles per Female. The mean number of ovarioles per female was found to be significantly influenced by host age at the moment of oviposition (GLM: 𝜒 2 = 3.6358, df =2, 𝑝<0.05) (Figure 3). In general, the number of ovarioles varied between the three females categories and was increased as the host caterpillar increased in size at the moment of oviposition. The average count in one-day-old females emerging from L1 two days old, L1 three days old, and L2 four days old is 38.36 ± 4.42 (𝑛=31); 38.16 ± 3.20 (𝑛=31); and 40.87 ± 3.15 (𝑛=31), respectively.
Mean number of eggs (immature eggs + mature eggs) per ovariole and per female at 12 and 72 h after adult emergence. Eggs that were attached by nurse cells were recorded as immature eggs (black solid color in Figure 1), and well-formed eggs who displayed an ovoid form and had a slender tapering stalk at their posterior end were recorded as mature eggs (black striped color in Figure 1). Means followed by different letters between columns are significantly different between females at 12 h (𝑛=20) and 72 h (𝑛=12) after adult emergence only according to GLM with “quasi-Poisson distribution” and log-link function (𝑝<0.05).
3.3. Egg Development within the Ovariole. Therophilus javanus ovarioles belong to the polytrophic meroistic type. Egg development occurred anteriorly to posteriorly along the ovariole, with two distinctly recognizable regions: the germarium and the vitellarium. The germarium contained a number of spherical cells observed as either free or clustered (Figure 4 (a)). Cell nuclei size increased as they progressed along the germarium. The vitellarium is the posterior region of the ovariole, where egg chambers (follicles) are formed and grown. In T. javanus vitellarium, nurse cells were disposed at the top of the oocyte, all being surrounded by a sheath composed of follicular cells (Figure 4 (b)). During progression of the follicles from the anterior to the posterior part of the vitellarium, vitellogenesis takes place and the size of the oocyte increases (Figure 4 (c)). A cross-section of the entire ovary shows that egg chambers were in different maturation stages within and between ovarioles (Figure 4 (d)). Well-differentiated oocytes (with chorion) displayed an ovoid shaped form and had a slender tapering stalk at their posterior end. Mature eggs measured 160.9 ± 6.9 𝜇m (𝑛=20) in length with widths ranging from 25.3 ± 2.6 𝜇m (𝑛=20) (anterior pole) to 9.4 ± 1.3 𝜇m (𝑛=20) (posterior/basal pole) (Figure 4 (e)).
3.4. Impact of T. javanus Female Age on the Number of Eggs. The number of eggs (both immature and mature) per female ranged from 1 to 88 and from 349 to 476 in 12-hour-old and 72-hour-old females, respectively. The overall mean number per female increased with the female age (GLM: 𝜒 2 = 6481.2, df = 1, 𝑝 <0.001). The number of eggs ranged from 0 to 6 and from 3 to 21 per ovariole, 12 hours and 72 hours after female emergence, respectively (Table 1). As expected, the number of eggs per female was found to be significantly influenced by the total number of ovariole per female (GLM: 𝜒 2 = 233.4, df =1, 𝑝<0.001).
3.5. Impact of Host and Female Wasp Age on the Egg Load. Overall, the mean number of mature eggs per female was found to be significantly influenced by host age (GLM: 𝜒 2 = 44.4, df = 1, 𝑝 <0.001) and parasitoid female age (GLM: 𝜒 2 = 16600.9, df = 4, 𝑝<0.001). Females that emerged from four-day-old host caterpillar at oviposition had a higher mean number of mature eggs. (Figure 5).
description: Published as part of Souna, Djibril Aboubakar, Bokonon-Ganta, Aimé, Ravallec, Marc, Cusumano, Antonino, Pittendrigh, Barry Robert, Volkoff, Anne-Nathalie & Tamò, Manuele, 2017, An Insight in the Reproductive Biology of Therophilus javanus (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, and Agathidinae), a Potential Biological Control Agent against the Legume Pod Borer (Lepidoptera, Crambidae), pp. 1-8 in Psyche: A Journal of Entomology (3156534) (3156534) 2017 on pages 3-4, DOI: 10.1155/2017/3156534, http://zenodo.org/record/15391490