Diclidophlebia smithi (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) como agente de controle biológico da planta invasora Miconia calvescens

• Ano de defesa: 2007
• Autor(a) principal: Morais, Elisangela Gomes Fidelis de
• Orientador(a): Picanço, Marcelo Coutinho
• Banca de defesa: Zanuncio, José Cola , Krüger, Rodrigo Ferreira , 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: Controle biológico clássico; Espécie nova; Melastomataceae; Psilídio; Tabela de vida
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Classical biological control; New specie; Melastomataceae; Psyllid; Life table
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::FITOSSANIDADE::ENTOMOLOGIA AGRICOLA
• Link de acesso: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3969

Miconia calvescens (Melastomataceae) is a native plant of Central and South America that has become an aggressive invader of forest ecosystems in French Polynesian, Hawaii and Australia, where it was introduced as ornamental. Preliminary studies of insects species attacking this plant in Brazil identified Diclidophlebia smithi (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) as a potential agent for biological control of this weed. The present study provides a description of this new psyllid species and reports a series of studies concerning host specificity, biology and population fluctuation of D. smithi conducted in Viçosa and Dionísio, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in June of 2001 to June of 2002 and February of 2004 to February of 2005. Nymphs and adults were diagnosed and illustrated for morphological characterization of the species. The biology and population dynamics of D. smithi were studied by construction of age-specific fertility and life tables and observation on life-history characteristics, fluctuation population, injury to M. calvescens, and occurrence of natural enemies. The adult of this species is characterized by having forewings with brown dots on veins and surface spinules forming a pattern of hexagonal cells consisting of double rows of spinules. The adults have also metatibia weakly expanded apically with an irregular crown of sclerotised apical spurs and presence of developed anal lobule (proctiger) in the males. Specificity studies with nine species of Melastomataceae and observations on plants neighboring M. calvescens indicated that D. smithi is monophagous. Nymphs and adults this species were observed attacking buds, inflorescences and infrutescences of M. calvescens and causing damage by sucking the plant sap and injecting toxins. Frequency distribution of the distance between the antennae evidenced the existence of five nymphal instars. Life table parameters showed that D. smithi have high reproductive capacity (increasing 110 to 147 times its population size an year) with nine generations a year. Colonies of the psyllid were observed throughout the year in Viçosa and Dionísio; population picks occurred from April to July, a period of low temperatures, scarce rains and short photoperiod. Adults of D. smithi were more affected by climatic elements than were nymphs, which is possibly because of the protection offered by waxy filaments present in the adults. Diclidophlebia smithii has desirable traits such as high population growth rate, host specificity, easy mass rearing, and potential capacity to adapt to different climatic conditions including those where this plant became an aggressive invader, which makes it a promising biological control agent of M. calvescens.