Biology and taxonomy of Anaphes flavipes (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) and potential use for biological control

My master thesis deals with biology and morphology of the species Anaphes flavipes (Chalcidoidea: Mymaridae) and its potential use for biological control of leaf beetles. Particularly, the fitness of wasps was studied and a statistically significant difference in number of parasitize host eggs for mated females compared to non-mated. The effect of feeding parental population on the number of parasitized host eggs, the number of offspring in F1 generation or their sex ratio, was not proved. Study of host specificity of A. flavipes indicates preference for host eggs of species Oulema melanopus. Preference for heavier host eggs was not confirmed. The effect of host eggs weight on number of eggs wasps inside was not conclusive either. Length of parasitism of host eggs was consistent with earlier studies. The passive defense of host O. gallaecina against parasitoid was observed. Variability of the species depending on location, host, nutrition, etc. was determined using morphological measurements. The third part of the thesis is focused on population density of A. flavipes and its hosts in the localities of organic versus conventional farming in order to use the parasitoid for biological control. There was no significant difference in the size of pest and parasitoid populations between the types of agriculture...