Parasitoides pupais para o controle biológico da Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius, 1794) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

摘要

Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius, 1794) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), popularly known as the sugarcane borer, is the greatest pest of sugarcane crops, and is responsible for considerable economic damages. This pest is difficult to manage, because it lives inside the culm when immature, creates galleries that weaken the plants, reduces the biomass and the quality of sugarcane juice, and lowers agricultural productivity. The excessive use of chemical insecticides leads to resistance in these pests and damages the environment, fauna, and flora, and these products are expensive. Thus, an indispensable component of pest management is biological control. All animal and plant species have natural enemies (parasitoids, predators, and entomopathogens) that affect different stages of development. Parasitoids represent an important tool in the biological control of lepidopteran pests. Knowledge of pupal parasitoid activity is important for the development of biological control strategies for this pest, which causes significant losses. Therefore, this paper uses published data to highlight the importance and effectiveness of parasitoids against sugarcane borer pupae.