Characterization and Identification of Acerophagus papayae Noyes and Schauff (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), an Introduced Parasitoid of Papaya Mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara De Willink through DNA Barcode

摘要

The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink, is a serious invasive pest in India and causes severe yield loss. Acerophagus papayae Noyes and Schauff (Encyrtidae) is one of the efficient parasitoids for the suppression of papaya mealybug in its native range. This parasitoid was introduced from Puerto Rico in 2010 through USDA-APHIS for use against the papaya mealybug. Subsequently, natural occurrence of the parasitoid was observed in mealybug infested papaya fields at Pune and the parasitoid was identified as A. papayae based on morphology based taxonomy at NBAII. The study was undertaken for the DNA barcoding of A. papayae, using CO1 region in order to supplement and confirm that the introduced and Pune populations belonged to the same species and the study revealed that the A. papayae populations from Pune and USA are one and the same having fragment size of ~673bp.