Phymastichus coffea LaSalle is an African endoparasitoid of adults of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) that was introduced into Mexico for biological control purposes. The objective of this study was to investigate the oviposition behavior of P. coffea on its host under laboratory conditions. The results indicate that P. coffea females exhibited 12 behavioral acts during and after oviposition, such as, walking, cleaning, flying, surface landing, resting, host landing, host antennation, touching the host with forelegs, host recognition, walking on the host, oviposition and cleaning after oviposition. The sequence of each behavior is described in an ethogram.
Biological control; parasitoid; Hypothenemus hampei
