Parasitoids (Hymenoptera) of Mealybug Pests (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) from Southern Brazil: Molecular and Morphological Characterization

Abstract

Parasitoids of three mealybug pests (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), Planococcus ficus (Signoret), Pseudococcus sociabilis Hambleton, and Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret) have been identified for the first time in Brazil. Mealybugs were collected in fruit-growing areas along southern Brazil during 2013-2016. An integrative approach, combining morphological and molecular methods, was used to identify the Brazilian parasitoids to the species level. Fifteen species were recorded, including 14 primary parasitoids belonging to Encyrtidae and Platygastridae and a single secondary parasitoid species belonging to Signiphoridae. The encyrtid parasitoids Acerophagus flavidulus (Brèthes), Anagyrus calyxtoi Noyes and Zaplatycerus sp., and the signiphorid secondary parasitoid Chartocerus axillaris De Santis are reported for the first time in Brazil.

Identifying cryptic species of Planococcus infesting vineyards to improve control efforts

“…Planococcus ficus has been reported as the main mealybug species infesting vineyards in many regions, including California, Egypt, Israel, Italy, South Africa, Turkey, and Uruguay Abd-Rabou et al 2012;Sharon et al 2016;Daane et al 2018b;Pacheco da Silva et al 2020;Cocco et al 2021). Worldwide, several parasitoid species have been associated with P. ficus (Trjapitzin and Trjapitzin 2002;Daane et al 2004;Fallahzadeh et al 2011;Japoshvili et al 2018;Pacheco da Silva et al 2021), but none have provided adequate control. This might be due to temperature development constraints (Daane et al 2004) or refuges on the vine where the mealybug is unavailable to the parasitoid (Daane et al 2006;Gutierrez et al 2008).…”

“…Parasitoid performance might also be impacted by mealybug species or geographic populations. For example, Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret) is controlled in New Zealand by the encyrtid Acerophagus maculipennis Signoret (Charles 2011), whereas in Chile and Brazil, P. viburni is controlled by Acerophagus flavidulus Brèthes (Ripa and Rojas 1990;Pacheco da Silva et al 2021), with each encyrtid species not being effective against P. viburni in the other region. It is unclear how these parasitoid species exhibit a level of host discrimination that may differentiate between geographic populations of P. viburni, but microsatellite markers later confirmed genetic differentiation between P. viburni populations from Chile and France (Correa et al 2014).…”