Oviposition and Survival of the European Parasite Microctonus Bicolor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in Crucifer-Infesting Flea Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Manitoba

Females of a European parasite, Microctonus bicolor Wesm. tested with adults of crucifer-infesting flea beetles from Manitoba, oviposited readily in Phyllotreta striolata (F.) and occasionally in Phyllotreta cruciferae (Goeze), but not in Psylliodes punctulata Melsh. Immature parasites developed and emerged from both P. striolata and P. cruciferae. M. bicolor is unlikely to provide economic control of P. cruciferae, which is the most important of the rapeseed-infesting flea beetles in the southern part of the prairie provinces. Further releases of M. bicolor should be in more northerly rapeseed-growing areas where there are higher population densities of P. striolata than at the original release site in southern Manitoba.