The objective of this work was to study the effect of different hosts and temperatures on Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hem., Psyllidae) biology. Citrus limonia (Rangpur lime), Murraya paniculata (orange jessamine) and Citrus sunki (Sunki mandarin) were used as hosts. Measurements included duration and viability of the egg and nymphal stages, sex ratio, fecundity and longevity. In order to verify the effect of temperature on D. citri biology, the duration and viability of its developmental stages and biological cycle were compared at seven different temperature conditions. Durations of the embryonic and nymphal stages were similar for Rangpur lime, orange jessamine and mandarin. However, the nymphal viability obtained on mandarin was lower than the values obtained on the other hosts. Fecundity was higher on orange jessamine and, in all instances, females had greater longevity than males. A fixed number of instars (five) was obtained on the three hosts. Rangpur lime and orange jessamine provided better D. citri development when compared with mandarin. Duration of the egg and nymphal stages varied from 2.6 to 7.7 and from 9.4 to 35.8 days, respectively, at temperatures from 18 to 32°C. Egg viability was higher than 81.6% at the temperature range studied (18-32°C); nymphal viability was higher than 70% at the 18-30°C range, differing from viability at 32°C, which was dramatically reduced. The D. citri lower temperature development threshold (TT) and thermal constant (K) values for the egg, nymphal and biological cycle (egg-adult) stages were 12.0°C and 52.6 Degree-Day (DD); 13.9°C and 156.9 DD; and 13.5°C and 210.9 DD respectively.

Under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) countries have sovereign rights over their genetic resources. Agreements governing the access to these resources and the sharing of the benefits arising from their use need to be established between involved parties [i.e. Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)]. This also applies to species collected for potential use in biological control. Recent applications of CBD principles have already made it difficult or impossible to collect and export natural enemies for biological control research in several countries. If such an approach is widely applied it Handling Editor: Eric Wajnberg.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

Neotropical Entomology 33(3): 271-281 (2004) Trichogramma no Brasil: Viabilidade de Uso Após Vinte Anos de Pesquisa RESUMO -São apresentados os resultados dos estudos com Trichogramma no Brasil, especialmente aqueles desenvolvidos na ESALQ/USP, nas últimas duas décadas . O projeto, envolvendo desde a taxonomia, técnicas de criação, aspectos biológicos e comportamentais das pragas e dos parasitóides, dinâmica populacional das pragas, técnicas de liberação,estudos de seletividade, avaliação da eficiência, pode ser considerado um modelo e foi seguido por outros programas de controle biológico no Brasil e na América Latina. O programa gerou inúmeras publicações, permitindo a formação de recursos humanos na área, abrindo novas áreas de pesquisa e mostrando que o parasitóide pode ser usado no controle de pragas-chave do algodoeiro, cana-de-açúcar, grãos armazenados, hortaliças, milho, soja e tomateiro. As perspectivas do uso do parasitóides possibilitaram a criação de empresas para comercializá-los no Brasil, transferindo mais facilmente a tecnologia ao usuário. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Trichogrammatidae, parasitóide de ovos, controle biológico aplicado ABSTRACT -Results of studies with Trichogramma in Brazil are presented, especially those developed at ESALQ/USP in the past two decades . The project involved taxonomy, rearing techniques, biological and behavioral aspects of the pests and parasitoids, pest population dynamics, release techniques, selectivity studies, and efficiency evaluation. It can be considered a model project and has been adopted by other biological control programs in Brazil and Latin America. The program has given rise to a number of publications, allowing the formation of human resources in this area and opening new research areas. The results indicated that the parasitoid can be used to control key pests in cotton, sugarcane, stored grain, vegetables, corn, soybean, and tomato. The perspective of using the parasitoid has stimulated the creation of companies to commercialize it in Brazil, thus more easily transferring this technology to users.

The use of Biological Control methods is on the increase, mainly as a result of the mobilization of human resources in entomology studies since the establishment of graduate programs in this country in the 1960s. This review approaches the retrospective of Biological Control in Brazil in recent decades, with an emphasis on the "culture of applying agrochemicals" adopted by Brazilian growers, which constrains progress in this area. Successful cases of Biological Control have been reported on in Brazil and there are, in fact, excellent programs in place that use insects or entomopathogenic microrganisms for insect pest control. Most of the studies in this area have been published in Portuguese and are, therefore, not readily available internationally. Importantly, half of the planted sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), around four million hectares, is treated with natural enemies (insects) and/or pathogens. In contrast to other countries that employ Biological Control in small areas, the challenge in Brazil is to implement programs in large farms. Many obstacles must be overcome and discussed in working groups so that we can assume a world leadership position in the use of Biological Control in tropical regions as Brazil is already considered the leader in tropical agriculture. In this review, use of Biological Control is discussed within the Integrated Pest Management philosophy, as a path toward sustainable agriculture that is in harmony with other pest control methods. We must develop a technology of Biological Control adapted to tropical regions, rather than copying models developed for temperate regions, which are usually inappropriate for Brazilian conditions.

(18, 20, 22, 25, 30, 32°C), 70±10% RU and photophase of 14 hours, with the aim of determining the thermal requirements and the number of generations during the year. There was an inverse correlation between the duration of the cycle and the increase of temperature in the thermal zone studied. Nevertheless, the sexual ratio was not affected by the temperature when the host was T. absoluta. The viability of T. pretiosum, reared in P. operculella, was more affected than in T. absoluta. The thermal requirement, calculated by the hyperbole was higher for T. absoluta (131.3 degrees day) in relation to P. operculella (120.9 degrees day), and the thermal threshold was lesser respectively, 12.98

The cowpea weevil Callosobruchus maculatus is one of the major pests of Vigna unguiculata cowpea. Digestion in the cowpea weevil is facilitated by high levels of cysteine and aspartic acid proteinases. Plants synthesize a variety of molecules, including proteinaceous proteinase inhibitors, to defend themselves against attack by insects. In this work, a trypsin inhibitor (ApTI) isolated from Adenanthera pavonina seeds showed activity against papain. The inhibition of papain by ApTI was of the noncompetitive type, with a K(i) of 1 microM. ApTI was highly effective against digestive proteinases from C. maculatus, Acanthoscelides obtectus (bean weevil), and Zabrotes subfasciatus (Mexican bean weevil) and was moderately active against midgut proteinases from the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis and the mealworm Tenebrio molitor. In C. maculates fed an artificial diet containing 0.25% and 0.5% ApTI (w/w), the latter concentration caused 50% mortality and reduced larval weight gain by approximately 40%. The action of ApTI on C. maculatus larvae may involve the inhibition of ApTI-sensitive cysteine proteinases and binding to chitin components of the peritrophic membrane (or equivalent structures) in the weevil midgut.

This research aimed to study the effects of different insecticides, herbicides and fungicides on eggs, larvae and pupae of

Trichogramma pretiosum Riley is an important natural enemy used for the biological control of Tutu absoluta in tomato fields in several countries in South America. The side-effects of insecticides on T. pretiosum was tested by dipping parasitized host eggs (Ephestia kuehniella Zeller) at three different development stages (egg-larvae, pre-pupae and pupae) in pesticide solution at recommended concentrations. The insecticides varied in their toxicity and significantly affected the development time of the immature stages, emergence, parasitism and longevity of the adult parasitoid. Cartap and phenthoate were harmful and caused total mortality in all the experiments in the three stages of development tested. Lambda-cyhalothrin was not detrimental but caused a significant increase in mortality, prolonged development of the immature stages and decreased the capacity of parasitism of the emerged females. Tebufenozide, teflubenzuron and abamectin had sublethal effects. They reduced the time of development, especially when applied during the pupae stage. The capacity of parasitism of emerged females decreased and was affected by the stage of development treated. With abamectin treatments, parasitism decreased as the development of the parasitoid advanced and the mortality of the emerged adults from host eggs treated during the pupae stage was significantly higher. Tebufenozide reduced parasitism when applied during the egg-larval and pre-pupae stages. The results showed that cartap and phenthoate were harmful, lambda-cyalothrin and abamectin were intermediate, tebufenozide and teflubenzuron were harmless to slightly harmful. Nearly all the chemicals tested had significant sublethal effects.