The objective of this work was to select the factitious host that permit the best development of three neotropical Trichogrammatidae species, Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, 1983; Trichogramma bruni Nagaraja, 1983, and Trichogrammatoidea annulata De Santis, 1972, using the fertility life table on their respective hosts as a comparative parameter. Mean generation time (T), net reproductive rate (Ro), intrinsic rate of natural increase (r m) and the finite rate of increase (λ) were estimated. A fertility life table is useful to select the most adequate factitious hosts for the trichogrammatid species. Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton, 1865) (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae) was the most suitable factitious host for rearing of T. annulata and T. bruni; while Anagasta kuehniella (Zeller, 1879) (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae) and/or C. cephalonica were the most suitable hosts for T. atopovirilia. Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier, 1819) (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae) presented a low capacity of population increase for the three species of parasitoids, therefore, being an inadequate species as a factitious host.
Egg parasitoid; factitious host; life table; Trichogramma spp
