Emergence of palmistichus elaeisis (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) from pupae of thagona tibialis (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) Collected in the medicinal plant Terminalia catappa (Combretaceae)

Abstract

The biological control of pests is an alternative to chemical control in plant crops used in folk medicine. The bark and the roots of tropical almond Terminalia catappa L. (Combretaceae) are indicated for dysentery, bile and gastric fevers and intestinal parasites; the leaves are used to treat colic and hemorrhoids; the unripe fruit is an astringent, the ripe fruit is a laxative, and its oil is used as an emulsifier for soothing the chest. Palmistichus spp. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), gregarious endoparasitoids, were little known until the publication of the first revision of this group in 1993. Fifty-four individuals of Palmistichus elaeisis Delvare and LaSalle, 1993 (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) were collected after emerging from a pupa of Thagona tibialis Walker, 1855 (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) when their caterpillars defoliated a tree of T. catappa at the campus of the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) in Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The parasitoid individuals were identified by the Department of Biology of the Lund University in Sölvegatan, Lund, Sweden. The present study includes a new host, pupae of T. tibialis associated to T. catappa, for P. elaeisis in Brazil.