Author(s): Passarinho, Ana Margarida Pedro
Date: 2009
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/621
Origin: Repositório da UTL
Subject(s): anagyrus spec. nov. prox. pseudococci; leptomastix dactylopii; mealybugs; encapsulation; superparasitism; biological control; cochonilhas-algodão; encapsulação; superparasitismo; protecção biologica
Mestrado em Engenharia Agronómica - Instituto Superior de Agronomia
The encapsulation can adversely affect biological control, by reducing their parasitoid effectiveness, leading to new outbreaks of insect pests. Thus, laboratorial studies related to the capability of an insect host to prevent the development of its parasitoids by encapsulation can be of extreme importance for the evaluation of their potential as agents of biological control. The present study was aimed at investigating the influence of the host species on the encapsulation of the eggs of the parasitoid wasp Anagyrus sp. nov. near pseudococci (sensu Triapitsyn et al. 2007) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) by six mealybug species (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), namely Planococcus citri (Risso), Planococcus ficus (Signoret), Pseudococcus calceolariae (Maskell), Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret), Paracoccus sp. and Delottococcus sp.. The parasitoid wasp Leptomastix dactylopii Howard (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) was selected as a comparative reference with respect to the host mealybugs P. citri, Paracoccus sp. and Delottococcus sp. The results suggest that the oviposition pattern and the encapsulation rates dependent on the combination host-parasitoid and that the parasitoid females are able to assess the physiological suitability of each host and change the oviposition pattern according to the level of host resistance.
