Comportamento de parasitismo de Acarophenax lacunatus e impacto de sua forésia em Rhyzopertha dominica

• Ano de defesa: 2007
• Autor(a) principal: Rocha, Silma Leite
• Orientador(a): Faroni, Lêda Rita D'antonino
• Banca de defesa: Serrão, José Eduardo , Santos, Jamilton Pereira dos , Pereira, Eliseu José Guedes
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Mestrado em Entomologia
• Departamento: Ciência entomológica; Tecnologia entomológica
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ácaro parasitóide; Acarophenacidade; Controle biológico; Armazenamento de grãos
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Parasitoid mite; Acarophenacidae; Biological control; Grain storage
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::FITOSSANIDADE::ENTOMOLOGIA AGRICOLA
• Link de acesso: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3857

Acarophenax lacunatus (Cross & Krantz) (Prostigmata: Acarophenacidae) is a parasitoid mite on eggs of some Insecta; this could be a complementary tool for pest management in stored products. This mite has preference for eggs of Rhyzopertha dominica (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) attaching to the adult beetles for dispersion, a phenomenon referred to as phoresy. Behavioral studies are critical for the understanding of several aspects of arthropod biology. No investigation on the parasitism behavior of A. lacunatus on and its phoretic relationship with R. dominica has been conducted yet and thus it was the objective of this work. Two sets of studies were conducted: the first investigated the parasitism behavior of A. lacunatus on the egg of R. dominica, and the second investigated whether phoresy of A. lacunatus would affect flight initiation and if phoretic loads would affected the walking behavior of adult beetles. In the study of parasitism behavior of A. lacunatus, the mite was placed in an arena together with in one host egg and observed until the parasitism. Based on observations of several individuals, the parasitism behavior was described with the following behavioral categories: initial exploratory march, exploratory march after finding the host egg and parasitism. In the test of flight initiation, adults of R. dominica with and without phoretic mites were placed in a bioassay chamber, which was evaluated in 10-min intervals for one hour to verify whether or not there were mites attached to the beetles that initiated flight. Results showed that most beetles initiating flight had no mites attached to their bodies. In the second test involving phoresy, beetles with different phoretic loads (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11 and 23 mites/insect) were observed in a video-recorded arena so as to determine the distance walked, time spent walking and time without walking. Beetles with phoretic loads of two, four and six mites walked longer distances and stayed less time without walking unlike beetles with phoretic loads of 11 and 23 mites, which tended to show a walking pattern similar to beetles without phoretic mites. In addition to observing a uniform pattern in the parasitism behavior by A. lacunatus on eggs of R. dominica, the presence of phoretic mites was associated with low frequency of flight initiation by the beetle, and depending on the number of mites attached to coleopteran, walking was stimulated or unaffected.