Do Trichogramma minutum Riley and Trichogramma bennetti Nagaraja & Nagarkatti (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) occur in Brazil?

Trichogramma minutum Riley e Trichogramma bennetti Nagaraja & Nagarkatti (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) ocorrem no Brasil?

SCIENTIFIC NOTE

Do Trichogramma minutum Riley and Trichogramma bennetti Nagaraja & Nagarkatti (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) occur in Brazil?

Trichogramma minutum Riley e Trichogramma bennetti Nagaraja & Nagarkatti (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) ocorrem no Brasil?

Ranyse B. Querino^I; Roberto A. Zucchi^II

^IEmbrapa Roraima, BR 174 km 8, Distrito Industrial, 69301-970, Boa Vista, RO, [e-mail]

^IIESALQ/USP, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, 13418-900, Piracicaba, SP, [e-mail]

ABSTRACT

According to some catalogues, Trichogramma minutum and T. bennetti have been recorded in Brazil. However, the information obtained in studies with Trichogramma in recent years indicate that those species do not occur in Brazil.

Key words: Egg parasitoid, geographical distribution, occurrence, record

RESUMO

Trichogramma minutum e T. bennetti têm sido registradas para o Brasil em alguns catálogos. Entretanto, as informações obtidas em estudos com Trichogramma nos últimos anos indicam que essas espécies não ocorrem no Brasil.

Palavras-chave: Parasitóides de ovos, distribuição geográfica, ocorrência, registro

Trichogramma minutum Riley has been originally described from specimens collected in the USA, whose types are missing. For this reason, a corresponding neotype was designated in the 1970's (Pinto et al. 1978). Actually, T. minutum represents a complex of populations whose taxonomic status still needs to be clarified. This species is commonly collected in Canada and the USA, both in natural habitats and in disturbed habitats (Pinto 1999).

T. minutum has been traditionally recorded in Brazil in Agricultural Entomology papers; until the 1960's, it was the only species in this genus recorded in Brazil, parasitizing eggs of Alabama argillacea (Hueb.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Calpodes ethlius (Stoll) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), Diatraea saccharalis (Fabr.) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), Erinnyis ello (L.) (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), Helicoverpa zea (Bod.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Neoleucinodes elegantalis (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and Sitotroga cerealella (Oliv.) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) (Silva et al. 1968). However, these records of T. minutum in Brazil are not the result of taxonomic identification, i.e., they were based on the use of an available name found in the literature, without appropriate species confirmation. During that period, the identification of Trichogramma species was superficial. The more consistent male genitalia characters for species identification were employed only in the beginning of the 1970's. Probably, based on Silva et al. (1968), this information was also included in the Luis De Santis' catalogue (1980), which must have been the source for the publication of a record in the "Universal Chalcidoidea Database" (Noyes 2004). In surveys on Trichogramma species conducted in the past 20 years at several Brazilian locations, including the Luiz de Queiroz campus, in Piracicaba, SP, where, in the 1980's, specimens from Antibes (France) were reared, no T. minutum individual has been collected. A consideration can also be made that, in a broader sense, the T. minutum records in South America must be checked. For example, the record of this species in Venezuela was the result of an erroneous identification of specimens of T. fuentesi Torres (Velásquez & Teran 2003).

Trichogramma bennetti Nagaraja & Nagarkatti was originally described from Hypsipyla ferrealis (Hampson) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) eggs in Trinidad (unspecified location), and was recorded in Brazil by De Santis (1979). However, in later catalogues, this record was not confirmed (De Santis 1981, De Santis & Fidaldo 1994). The confusion about the record of this species in the country might be associated with another trichogrammatid – Trichogrammatoidea bennetti Nagaraja – which was described based on specimens collected in Brazil. Thus, the T. bennetti record from Brazil can be attributed to an erroneous information compilation. In addition to Trinidad, T. bennetti also occurs in Colombia (Pinto 1999) and Venezuela, where it had been erroneously described as T. guariquensis [sic] Velásquez & Terán, junior synonym (Velásquez & Téran 2003).

Therefore, the studies performed in the past 20 years by Zucchi (1986), Zucchi & Monteiro (1995, 1997), Zucchi et al. (1991), Querino & Zucchi (2002, 2003a,b,c,2004a,b,2005) support the conclusion that T. minutum and T. bennetti are not present in Brazil.

Received 01/VIII/05. Accepted 24/IV/06.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  30 Mar 2007
• Date of issue
  Feb 2007

History

• Received
  01 Aug 2005
• Accepted
  24 Apr 2006