Abstract

TELLO, Paola; CANTOR, Fernando; RODRIGUEZ, Daniel  and  CURE, José Ricardo. Release densities and frequencies of Encarsia formosa (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) on Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) in tomato. Agron. colomb. [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.2, pp.314-319. ISSN 0120-9965.

The greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most important pests of tomato greenhouse cultures in Bogotá plateau. This pest has been traditionally controlled using insecticides, however, the releases of wasp parasitoid Encarsia formosa (Gahan) (Hymenoptera: Aphenilidae) have already been contemplating. In order to standardize the mass rearing process of E. formosa, three different wasp densities (6, 12 and 18 wasp/plant) at three release frequencies (1, 2 and 3 times/ week) on eight week old tomato plants with three different infestation levels (15, 30 and 45 nymphs of whitefly susceptible to parasitation/leaf) were evaluated. The highest parasitism percentage (70%) was obtained when six wasps per plant were released three different times during the same week. The minor parasitism percentage (50%) was obtained when 6, 12 or 18 wasps were released on a weekly basis. These results indicated that it might be possible to obtain a 70% level of parasitism of whitefly infestation (hovered to 45 nymphs/leaf) in tomato plants with a small amount of E. formosa (six) when these are released three times per week.

Keywords : biological control; parasitoids; release requencies; tomato; mass rearing.

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