Abundancia y frecuencia de microhimenópteros parasitoides de mosca blanca en el cultivo de pimiento en Lules, Tucumán

Abstract

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is a serious problem in important crops like pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) because of the damages it causes, forcing to do many chemical applications to control its increasing population. However, it has been determined the presence of parasitoids that regulate them naturally. The objective of this work was to record the abundance and frequency of microhymenopterous parasitoids of B. tabaci in pepper crop. Periodical samplings were performed during the crop cycle; white flies’ samples were collected at pupal stage to obtain adult parasitoids and their numbers was recorded according to their identification. The total of collected parasitoids was 469; where 439 belongs to Eretmocerus genus and 30 to Encarsia. Eretmocerus was present during all the crop cycle whereas Encarsia was sporadically. 90% of the identified species for Eretmocerus corresponded to E. mundus, 9% to E. corni, 0.78% to Eretmocerus sp. and 0.22% to E. paulistus. 97% of the Encarsia species corresponded to E. porteri and 3% to E. desantisi. It is concluded that in pepper under-cover crop there is an important number of parasitoids species; the most abundant and frequent belongs to Eretmocerus genus, being E. mundus the predominant species. Thus, it is important the preservation of these biocontrollers.