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A Scouting Method for Estimating Insect Populations in an Encarsia formosa (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) Mass Rearing System

  • Biological Control
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Abstract

Encarsia formosa (Gahan) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) has been used to control for the biological control of Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in greenhouse tomato crops. One aspect that influences the success of this method is the continuous availability of large numbers of E. formosa that enable the grower to release them at the proper time and in the quantity required. Rearing facilities of this parasitoid require reliable and low time-consuming methods for scouting populations of insects to forecast production. In this work, we develop a time-effective method for estimating insect populations in a mass rearing system with T. vaporariorum, using common bean plants as hosts. The population density of T. vaporariorum in highly infested leaves was determined to be 27.5 nymphs/cm2 using a linear regression model. Using an effort curve and binomial distribution, we determined that 14 and 54 leaves are the minimum number of sampling units required to estimate the T. vaporariorum nymphs and E. formosa pupae populations, respectively. A wasp ratio was determined by dividing the number of E. formosa produced by the total number used in the process. This index was higher when less than 7000 E. formosa were released per production batch in 1 week. When high populations of E. formosa are released in a batch, the production efficiency decreases, producing fewer new adults per adult used in the batch.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mary Rozo for the great contribution of experience to the proper development of the research process.

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Vice-rectory of Nueva Granada Military University through the research project CIAS1175 entitled “OPTIMIZACION DE LA PRODUCCIÓN DE Encarsia formosa (Gahan) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) ENEMIGO NATURAL DE LA MOSCA BLANCA DE LOS INVERNADEROS Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) MEDIANTE UN MODELO DE SIMULACION.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Basic and Applied Sciences Faculty, Nueva Granada Military Univ, Bogota, Colombia

    M A Díaz, D Rodríguez & F Cantor

Authors
  1. M A Díaz
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  2. D Rodríguez
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  3. F Cantor
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Contributions

MD, DR, and FC conceived the research idea. MD designed and performed the experiments and took the lead in writing the manuscript. DR verified the methods and performed the analysis. FC contributed to the interpretation of the results. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to M A Díaz.

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Edited by Christian S Torres – UFRPE

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Díaz, M.A., Rodríguez, D. & Cantor, F. A Scouting Method for Estimating Insect Populations in an Encarsia formosa (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) Mass Rearing System. Neotrop Entomol 48, 476–483 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-018-0664-x

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