Apanteles angaleti Muesebeck

Apanteles angaleti is a solitary larval endoparasitoid of Pectionophora gossypiella (Saunders). It is widely distributed in most of the cotton growing areas of the country.

The parasitoid requires high humidity for parasitising the host. This can be created by filling a clear plastic or glass trough 15 x 10 cm with water upto 2 cm height and covering it with a strong nylon or plastic mesh fixing tightly over the edges of the trough by an adhesive tape or velcrow tape. A petridish (5 cm dia) containing first instar larvae of Corcyra cephalonica in a very thin layer (2 mm) of wheat or sorghum flour is placed over the nylon net or plastic mesh covering the trough. Before. exposing these larvae to the female parasitoids a small dish containing 50% honey cotton swabs or cut raisins are placed over the mesh to serve as a food for the adult parasitoids. Another trough of similar size as the bottom trough is squarely placed. over the bottom trough and the adults are released in the space created between these two troughs. The column of water maintained in the lower trough ensures a high humidity of 90% in the upper chamber. The Corcyra larvae are exposed to the parasitoid for a period of 24 hours and then replaced by another dish containing the first instar Corcyra larvae. The parasitized larvae are transferred to plastic basins or jars of 3litre capacity containing 1 kg of crushed sorghum or bajra grains for further development. An assembly line is set for getting the desired number of parasitoids. The entire assembly is replaced at 3 day/weekly interval to maintain high production quality.