Egg parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae and Trichogrammatidae) of dalbulus quinquenotatus (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), with description of a new species of anagrus (Mymaridae) from Mexico

Abstract

The fivespotted gamagrass leafhopper, Dalbulus quinquenotatus DeLong & Nault (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is a sister species of the common and widespread leafhopper pest of maize in the New World, Dalbulus maidis (DeLong). In the course of a survey of egg parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae and Trichogrammatidae) in Jalisco, Mexico, using sentinel eggs of D. quinquenotatus on its principal host plant, Tripsacum dactyloides (Poaceae), three species have been discovered and reported for the first time as its egg parasitoids: Anagrus (Anagrus) naulti Triapitsyn & Moya-Raygoza sp. n. (Mymaridae), which is newly described and illustrated, and also Paracentrobia sp. near subflava (Girault) and Pseudoligosita sp. near longifrangiata (Viggiani) (Trichogrammatidae), on which taxonomic comments and illustrations are provided. Paracentrobia sp. was the most common and abundant egg parasitoid, occurring in 36.9% of the rearings, and A. naulti was reared in 18.2% of the samples; the latter has a much shorter life cycle than the former species. Only a few Pseudoligosita sp. have been found in 1.3% of the samples.