Pupal parasitoids of Antichloris eriphia (Fabr.) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) in the Agreste region of the Alagoas state, northeastern Brazil

Brazil is the world's fourth largest producer of Musa spp. (Musaceae) with annual production of 6,953,747 tons (Pereira et al., 2022a) in a planted area of ​​ 457.910 ha, the second among cultivated fruits (IBGE, 2022). Insect defoliators, pseudostem and rhizome borers, and root, fruit and flower pests, and sucking insect vectors of diseases, damage banana plants, Musa spp. (Krishnan et al., 2020).

Antichloris eriphia Fabricius, 1777 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) occurs in southeast Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Suriname damaging banana plants and has been reported in banana importing countries (Draudt, 1917; Schaus, 1938; Field, 1975; Chalumeau and Delplanque 1978; Gernaat, 2016).

Caterpillars of A. eriphia which perforate and destroy the leaf area of Musa spp. and use Heliconia latispatha Benth. (Heliconiaceae) in Brazil, as intermediate host (Watanabe, 2007), is one of the main moth species defoliator of banana plants reducing its photosynthetic area and assimilated material translocated from the rhizome to the fruit (Ostmark, 1974).

Biological control methods of A. eriphia are scarce and the egg parasitoid Trichogramma sp. (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) is the only natural enemy of this pest reported in Musa spp. plantations in Brazil (Souza et al., 2016). Parasitoids of the Hymenoptera order are efficient and more specific and, therefore, a sustainable method of biological control in the management of arthropod pest populations (Pinheiro et al., 2022).

The objective is to report, for the first time, the parasitism of A. eriphia by Tetrastichus howardi Olliff, 1893 and Trichospilus diatraeae Cherian & Margabandhu, 1942 (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) pupae on Heliconia psittacorum L.F. and Heliconia stricta Huber (Heliconiaceae) plants in an urbanized area of the Agreste region of Alagoas state, Brazil.

Caterpillars and pupae of A. eriphia were collected on H. psittacorum and H. stricta plants in the garden of the Universidade Estadual do Alagoas (09°45'09''S; 36°39'40''W) Campus I, in the municipality of Arapiraca, Alagoas state, Brazil.

Twenty A. eriphia pupa were collected using a 50 ml falcon tube, placed in containers and taken to the laboratory where they were individualized in Petri plates (60 x 15 mm area). Three pupae of the 20 collected were parasitized and 225 similar parasitoids emerged from two of them, while a second type emerged from the third parasitized pupa. The parasitoid wasps, emerged from A. eriphia pupae, were identified by one of the authors (VAC) as Trichospilus diatraeae Cherian & Margabandhu, 1942 and T. howardi. The identification of T. diatraeae was performed according to Bouček (1976) and Narendran (2011) and T. howardi based on La Salle and Polaszek (2007).

Two hundred and twenty-five individuals of T. diatraeae emerged from three pupae of A. eriphia, and ten T. howardi from one pupa of this insect host (Figure 1 A & B), among the 20 collected on H. psittacorum and H. stricta plants in Arapiraca, Agreste region of the Alagoas state, Brazil. Voucher specimens of the parasitoid wasps were deposited in the “Oscar Monte” Entomophagous Insect Collection at the Instituto Biológico in Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil, under reference number IB-CBE-S-852 (curator: Valmir A. Costa).

Figure 1
Females of Tetrastichus howardi (A) and Trichospilus diatraeae (B) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae).

Parasitism of A. eriphia pupae by T. diatraeae and T. howardi increases the number of natural enemies of A. eriphia, after the report of Trichogramma spp. (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) parasitizing eggs of this pest in the semi-arid region of the Minas Gerais state, Brazil (Souza et al., 2016). Trichospilus diatraeae was also reported from Helicoverpa armigera Hübner, 1805 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Thyrinteina arnobia Stoll & Cramer, 1782 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) pupae (Pereira et al., 2008; Oliveira et al., 2016). Tetrastichus howardi parasitized pests in different crops, including the sugarcane stem borer Diatraea saccharalis Fabricius, 1794 (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), the crucifer moth Plutella xylostella Linnaeus, 1758 (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and the cassava moth Erinnyis ello Linnaeus, 1758 (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) (Barbosa et al., 2015; Favero et al., 2015; Pereira et al., 2022b).

The record of T. diatraeae and T. howardi parasitizing A. eriphia pupae increases the number of natural enemies of this defoliating lepidopteran, being the first record of these parasitoids associated with A. eriphia in Brazil, as well as in the urbanized area of the Arapiraca municipality in the Agreste region of the Alagoas state, northeastern Brazil.

Acknowledgements

To the Brazilian institutions “Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES- Finance Code 001)”, “Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)” and “Programa Cooperativo sobre Proteção Florestal (PROTEF)” do “Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Florestais (IPEF)”. IVAC thanks the INCT-Hympar (Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia dos Hymenoptera Parasitoides, CNPq Process 465562/2014-0) for financial support.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  18 Mar 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  28 July 2023
• Accepted
  24 Jan 2024