Pepper weevil is the most harmful pest of pepper. Farmers use insecticides to kill the adults. The insecticides are ineffective on immature stages. There a need to develop a sustainable management system. The parasitoid Catolaccus hunteri is a potential parasitoid of the pepper weevil. It is an ecto-parasitoid on immature stages of pepper weevil. The exact method for the mass rearing of C. huntri has always been a major concern for the field release. In this study, we mass-reared C. huntri on,Callosobruchus maculatus Coleoptera: Bruchidae. We reared C. maculatus on garbanzo beans. The purpose of the study was to develop a precise system using the right stage of a certain number of C. maculatus to obtain required number of C. hunteri adults. The experiment was conducted in plastic boxes (18cmX13cmX9cm) in the laboratory condition maintained at 28 ± 2°C and 50-70% RH. Infested garbanzo beans will be placed in a plastic box. Two pairs of 2-4 days old adults of C. hunteri will be released on 200 garbanzo beans infested for 18 days with C. maculatus. The sugar solution was provided as a source of nutrients in the box to assist C. hunteri survival and egg-laying. The total number of C. hunteri emergence was recorded 14 days after the initial release. The experiment is replicated five times. The results from this study will be used by researchers to have enough population of C. hunteri to study and develop an efficient management system for the control of pepper weevil.
