Desempenho de espécies de Trichogramma West. (Hym:Trichogrammatidae) para o controle de Heliothis virescens (Fabr.) (Lep.: Noctuidae)

Abstract

One important aspect of maximizing pest natural mortality factors is to enhance the action of natural enemies into integrated pest management programs. Species of the egg parasitoid Trichogramma have been investigated and used successfully around the world. To boost the utilization of these parasitoids as biological control agent, basic studies on species selection regarding the interactions with environmental conditions and host plants is needed. In Brazil, Trichogramma pretiosum Riley is recommended to control lepidopteran pests of cotton. Thus, this research evaluated the potential of other three Trichogramma species in comparison to T. pretiosum parasitizing eggs of tobacco budworm Heliothis virescens (Fabr.) under constant (20, 25 and 30oC) and alternated (immature development at 25oC and adult submitted to 20 and 30oC) temperatures. Additionally, the best performing species at these temperature regimes were tested when offering egg of the host tobacco budworm on cotton leaves of two varieties (ca. colored BRS Safira and white fibers BRS 8H). The species studied were: Trichogramma exiguum Pinto & Platner, Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, Trichogramma acacioi Brun, Moraes & Soares and T. pretiosum. The evaluated parameters were: parasitism rate and its viability, sex ratio of the progeny and number of descendents emerged per egg parasitized. Overall, T. atopoviriliaexhibited the best performance through all temperature regimes studied. T. pretiosum and T.exiguum achieved similar parasitism rate of H. virescens eggs, while T. acacioi showed the lower performance. Based on the results above, parasitism of eggs offered on cotton leaves was conducted with the species T. exiguum, T. pretiosum and T. atopovirilia. The cotton variety affected the parasitism rate of T. exiguum and T. atopovirilia resulting in lower parasitism when eggs were offered on BRS Safira cotton leaves, but it was similar for T. pretiosum. Therefore, under constant and alternating temperatures and host exposure on cotton leaves all species parasitized eggs of H. virescens, but T. atopovirilia exhibited better performance in comparison to the others. Therefore, further studies should be conducted looking for other field aspects related with the use of this parasitoid such as dispersion and field parasitism.