Optimal clutch size for quality control of bisexual and Wolbachia‐infected thelytokous lines of Trichogramma dendrolimi Matsumura (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) mass reared on eggs of a substitutive host, Antheraea pernyi Guérin‐Méneville (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)

BACKGROUND Trichogramma dendrolimi has been widely used in augmentative biocontrol of lepidopteran pests in China. In mass production of T. dendrolimi using Antheraea pernyi eggs as substitutive hosts, which are large in size, as clutch size is a parameter of importance to produce high quality parasitoids. Here, we aimed to determine the optimal clutch size for the bisexual Wolbachia‐uninfected line (TdB) and Wolbachia‐infected thelytokous line (TdT) of T. dendrolimi reared on A. pernyi eggs. RESULTS A medium clutch size of 42.75 to 62.27 for TdB and 52.93 to 57.14 for TdT was optimal to maximize fitness‐correlated traits of parasitoid individual. The optimal clutch sizes with maximized parameters included adult emergence rate, adult body size, adult longevity, fecundity, and sum of fecundity of all females per brood were 58.31 (86.00%), 42.75 (231.11 μm), 50.92 (2.69 days), 62.27 (150.89 eggs), and 83.25 (7926.33 eggs) for TdB and 57.14 (94.54%), 52.93 (236.97 μm), 53.64 (2.62 days), 56.80 (161.01 eggs), and 70.10 (8579.71 eggs) for TdT. The TdT had a shorter adult longevity, longer development time, and higher adult emergence rate than did its non‐infected bisexual counterpart. CONCLUSION A medium brood size in a A. pernyi egg host was optimal to produce offspring parasitoids with higher fitness parameters for both bisexual Wolbachia‐uninfected and thelytokous Wolbachia‐infected lines of T. dendrolimi. The determination of optimal clutch size for T. dendrolimi will provide the reference for the quality control of T. dendrolimi production and improvement of the field performance of the wasps. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry The article provides an accurate standard for the optimal clutch size for bisexual and Wolbachia‐infected thelytokous Trichogramma dendrolimi production quality control. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry