Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #258631
Title: Egg parasitoids of Taosa spp. (Hemiptera:Dictyopharidae)in Formosa Argentina with descriptions of new species

Author
item TRIAPITSYN, SERGUEI - University Of California
item HERNANDEZ, M. CRISTINA - South American Biological Control Lab(SABCL)

Submitted to: Argentina Entomological Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2011
Publication Date: 6/30/2011
Citation: Triapitsyn, S.V., Hernandez, M. 2011. Egg parasitoids of Taosa spp. (Hemiptera:Dictyopharidae)in Formosa Argentina with descriptions of new species. Revista De La Sociedad Entomologica Argentina. 70(1-2):55-61.

Interpretive Summary: The planthopper Taosa longula is an insect under study as a biocontrol candidate that produces visible damage to waterhyacinth plants. The eggs, inserted by the females in the petioles, suffer the attack of tiny wasps. The female wasp deposits one egg on the planthopper egg on which the wasp larva feeds and develops. During biological studies of the planthopper, groups of eggs were collected in the north of Argentina and incubated at the laboratory where the parasitoids emerged. The taxonomic study, carried out at the University of California, Riverside, showed that two species, new to science, were parasitizing T. longula. The two records are new associations between the parasitoid and the host.

Technical Abstract: Egg parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae and Platygastridae) of Taosa (Cuernavaca) longula Remes Lenicov (Hemiptera: Dictyopharidae) are reviewed and keyed. This planthopper feeds on water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Martius) Solms-Laubach, and was collected in Formosa, Argentina, where some of its eggs turned out to be parasitized. Two new species are described: Aprostocetus (Ootetrastichus) taosae Triapitsyn, sp. nov. (Eulophidae: Tetrastichinae) and Telenomus formosanus Triapitsyn, sp. nov. (Platygastridae: Scelioninae). The latter species, which belongs to the crassiclava species group of Telenomus Haliday, also attacks eggs of Taosa sp. on Pontederia subovata (Seubert) Lowden. These are first records of egg parasitoids of the genus Taosa Distant.