Poekilloptera phalaenoides (Hemiptera: Flatidae): occurrence on Inga striata (Fabaceae) in a mountainous region

About 30 species of the genus Inga are distributed in the Neotropics (Pennington, 1997). Present in all regions of Brazil, with predominance in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest region Inga striata Benth. (Fabaceae) has leaf glands (nectaries), tubular flowers with long tetragonal indehiscent plant stamens and seeds with white sarcots. This plant is also used in afforestation, recovery of degraded soils and shading coffee plantations (Garcia and Bonadeu, 2020; Pennington, 1997).

Poekilloptera phalaenoides Linnaeus (Hemiptera: Flatidae) sucks sap from its host plants (Del-Claro and Oliveira, 1999; Fischer et al., 2005; Styrsky and Eubanks, 2007) and produces honeydew favoring the appearance and proliferation of fungi causing sooty mold that coats the leaves, reducing the photosynthetic and respiratory process and causing leaf drop (Querino et al., 2007; Maes, 2004). Information on insect pests damaging I. striata is scarce and, the objective was to record the occurrence of P. phalaenoides on this plant in a mountainous region.

Leafhoppers were observed on an I. striata plant in a mountainous area at the Universidade Federal dos Vales Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM) in December 2020 in the municipality of Diamantina (18°12'09.9612” S and 43°34'26.7276 W, 1.387 m.a.s.l.), state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Adults of this insect were collected with entomological tweezers and placed in pots with a capacity of 80 mL. The leafhoppers were compared with specimens of P. phalaenoides previously identified by the Dr. Stephen W. Wilson from the Department of Agriculture at the University of Central Missouri, USA. The insect specimens used for the identification were assembled and deposited in the Entomology collection of the UFVJM (without voucher number).

The plant sample was collected and taken to the Herbarium DIAM/UFVJM/Diamantina of the DCB/DCBio Building, Room 213, and identified by Dr. Evandro Luiz Mendonça Machado as I. striata, registered and deposited under the identification number 8887.

Poekilloptera phalaenoides fed on an I. striata plant (Figure 1), located in the mountainous region of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This insect produces honeydew, which covered most leaves of this plant due to high infestation. Sooty mold formation was also observed on the leaves of the plants (Figure 1) in the UFVJM Campus, where this species was introduced for landscape purposes. Poekilloptera phalaenoides, observed throughout the year in its host, completed its biological cycle on I. striata. The feeding of this insect on the plant I. striata increases the number of host records for this insect in the Southeast region, besides the reports on Abarema villosa (Fabaceae), Acacia podalyriaefolia and Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia, (Fabaceae) in Minas Gerais state (Pires et al., 2011; Menezes et al., 2012, 2018), and Cassia grandis and Senna macranthera (Fabaceae) in São Paulo state (Michelotto et al., 2013). In the Midwest Brazil, this insect was recorded on Tachigali vulgaris (Fabaceae) in Goiás state, on a plant of Sclerolobium paniculatum (Caesalpinioideae) in Mato Grosso state, on Caryocar brasiliense (Caryocaraceae), Dalbergia miscolobium (Fabaceae), Hymenaea stigonocarpa (Caesalpinaceae), Maprounea guianensis (Euphorbiaceae), Ocotea spixiana (Lauraceae), Salacia crassifolia (Hippocrateaceae), Sclerolobium paniculatum (Caesalpinaceae) and Styrax ferrugineus (Styracaceae) in Distrito Federal (Silva-Neto et al., 2017; Oliveira and Frizzas, 2015; Manica et al., 2012). In the North region of Brazil, it was recorded on plants of Acacia mangium (Fabaceae) in Roraima state and on Parkia pendula (Fabaceae) in Tocantins (Querino et al., 2007; Cursino and Duarte, 2014). In the Northeast Brazil, in the municipality of Camaragibe, Pernambuco state without registration of the host plant (Figure 2) (GBIF, 2021).

Figure 1
Adults (A); nymphs (indicated by arrows) and adults (B, C) and sooty mold growing up on honeydew produced by adults Poekilloptera phalaenoides on Inga striata plant (D).

Figure 2
General distribution of Poekilloptera phalaenoides (Flatidae) on host plants in Brazil.

This is the first record of P. phalaenoides on an I. striata plant in a mountainous region in the municipality of Diamantina, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. This plant was suitable for this insect as a shelter, food source and a reproduction place. The registration of host plants is important to manage P. phalaenoides.

Acknowledgements

To Philipe Guilherme Corcino Souza, from the Postgraduate Program in Plant Production at UFVJM, for drawing up the map. To “Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brazil (CAPES)” and to “Programa Cooperativo de Proteção Florestal (PROTEF) do Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Florestais (IPEF)” for financial support.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  27 Apr 2022
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  15 Nov 2021
• Accepted
  07 Apr 2022