Coccinellidae Parasitoids in Brazil: Neglected Species in a Mega-Diverse Country

Abstract

Current knowledge on coccinellids is primarily focused on their role as natural enemies of soft-bodied insects. However, there is a great diversity of coccinellid parasitoid species that are less studied. Here, we describe new records of coccinellid parasitoids with emphasis on new host-parasitoid interactions in 11 sample sites in Brazil. We collected 122 coccinellid individuals parasitized by six species of parasitoids in the Cerrado and in the Atlantic Rainforest biomes. New records of coccinellid parasitoids and host associations, expansion of habitat ranges and interactions are discussed focusing on the lack of basic information on these interactions in Brazil.

Scrutinizing the enemy release hypothesis: population effects of parasitoids on Harmonia axyridis and local host coccinellids in Brazil

“…Homalotylus mirabilis and Homalotylus terminalis are larval parasitoids, emerging from host larvae (Iperti 1964). In this work, we did not observe Homalotylus terminalis parasitizing Harmonia axyridis larvae, as previously observed in Brazil (Togni et al 2015) and the USA (Riddick et al 2009). This species was active only at the beginning of the dry season, and we may have detected the tail of its activity period when coccinellid hosts are uncommon and Harmonia axyridis larvae were not present.…”

“…Harmonia axyridis invaded Brazil in the early 2000s (Almeida and Silva 2002) from Argentina where it was intentionally introduced in late 90s to control aphids (Saini 2004) and/or from an eastern North American population (Lombaert et al 2010). Since its arrival, Harmonia axyridis has spread and established in a vast area of Brazil (Arruda Filho et al 2009;Resende et al 2010;Harterreiten-Souza et al 2012;Togni et al 2015;Koch et al 2016) and nearly all countries in South and Central America (e.g., Roy et al 2016;Hiller and Haelewaters 2019).…”

“…Brazilian agroecosystems contain 85 species of aphidophagous Coccinellinae (Gonzáles 2011), on which there are several species of parasitoids (e.g., Silva et al 2012;Togni et al 2015). Two of these parasitize Harmonia axyridis in its native region: Dinocampus coccinellae (Schrank) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Homalotylus flaminius (Dalman) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) (e.g., Ceryngier et al 2018;Romanov 2019).…”

Predators and parasitoids of the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, in its native range and invaded areas

“…However, two genera, Medina and Strongygaster, parasitize Coccinellini adults, including H. axyridis (Ceryngier and Hodek 1996;Ceryngier et al 2012;Togni et al 2015). All reports of Medina parasitizing ladybirds are from the Palaearctic region, both within and outside of the native range of H. axyridis (Ceryngier and Hodek 1996).…”

“…Rearing H. axyridis from a sample collected in Oregon yielded in emergence of the flies from 4.8% of the beetles, while the parasitism rate in the dissected subsample was 15.4% (Katsoyannos and Aliniazee 1998). Recently, another species of Strongygaster, S. brasiliensis (Townsend) was discovered parasitizing H. axyridis in Brazil (Togni et al 2015).…”