Revista Colombiana de Entomología (2009) 35, 62-65

Marcus Alvarenga Soares, Carolina Torres Gutierrez, José Cola Zanuncio, Aline Rodrigues Porto Pedrosa and Alexandre Simões Lorenzon (2009)
Superparasitismo de Palmistichus elaeisis (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) y comportamiento de defensa de dos hospederos
[Superparasitism by Palmistichus elaeisis (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and defense behaviors of two hosts]
Revista Colombiana de Entomología 35 (1), 62-65
Abstract: Several families of parasitoids are capable of discriminating among parasitized and unparasitized hosts. However, some cases of superparasitism have been recorded in species of Eulophidae. The objective of this study was to investigate whether females of Palmistichus elaeisis (Eulophidae) superparasitize pupae of Thyrinteina arnobia (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) and Hylesia sp. (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) in the laboratory and to describe the defense mechanisms of those hosts. The experiment was done in the insectary of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil. Petri dishes were used as oviposition chambers and contained two T. arnobia pupae, one of them parasitized by P. elaeisis and the other not. The pupae were placed on each side of the dish. Petri dishes were likewise set up with two pupae of Hylesia sp. For both treatments, ten females of P. elaeisis were released in the center of the dish, which represented a replicate. A total of eight replicates were used for each treatment. The oviposition preference of P. elaeisis on host pupae was observed for six hours and analyzed using the chi-square test (X²) (P 0.01). In observing the defense behavior of the hosts, T. arnobia pupae showed spinning movements which in turn induced superparasitism in less mobile pupae. Individuals of Hylesia sp. did not show any defense behavior and in this case the discrimination led to a clear choice for the unparasitized pupae.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
(original language: Spanish)
Database assignments for author(s): Marcus Alvarenga Soares, José Cola Zanuncio

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Thyrinteina arnobia		Brazil (south)
Palmistichus elaeisis (parasitoid)	Thyrinteina arnobia		Brazil (south)