Paracoccus marginatus
Encyclopedia
Paracoccus marginatus, commonly known as the papaya mealybug, is a small sap-sucking insect in the Pseudococcidae family. It is found on a number of different hosts including economically important tropical fruit trees and various ornamental plants.
have eight segments in both sexes which distinguishes this species from the hibiscus mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus
).
in 1998 feeding on hibiscus
and four years later it had been detected on eighteen different plant species in the state. It has since been found in Texas and California and it is likely to become more widely distributed on the Gulf Coast, and perhaps also in crops grown under glass further north in the United States.
Had been intruduced around Feb. 2010 to the island of Réunion
in the Indian Ocean
.
, citrus
, mango
, cherry
and pomegranate
, as well as hibiscus
, cotton
, tomato
, eggplant, peppers
, bean
s, pea
s and sweet potato
.
s in the females and five in the males. The fifth instar male is a pupa in which the nymph undergoes metamorphosis
into a winged adult.
of the leaf or the skin of fruit or stem and feeds on the plant sap. At the same time it injects a toxic substance into the plant which results in chlorosis, distortion, stunting, early leaf and fruit fall, the production of honeydew
, sooty mould
and possibly the death of the plant.
), other lady beetles
, lacewings
and hover flies
. The larvae of several species of wasp in the family Encyrtidae
are parasitoid
s of papaya mealybugs in their original range.
In 1999, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
and the USDA Agricultural Research Service
collected and reared four species of wasp from Mexico in a biological control experiment. They introduced them into Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and achieved a reduction of the papaya mealybug populations in both countries of over 95%. All four wasps were observed parasitising second and third instars of the papaya mealybug but Acerophagus papayae was the dominant species. All four have since been mass reared and released in Florida.
Description
The adult female has a yellowish segmented, flattened oval body about two millimetres long covered with mealy wax. There are a number of short waxy filaments projecting around the margin. The ovisac is well developed and visible underneath the posterior part of the body. Sometimes the wax looks like cotton wool and oozes drops of fluid. The adult male is pinkish, about one millimetre long, with well-developed wings which have a small basal vein. The antennaeAntenna (biology)
Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....
have eight segments in both sexes which distinguishes this species from the hibiscus mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus
Maconellicoccus hirsutus
The Maconellicoccus hirsutus, is a pest of many plants, trees, and shrubs. It infests hibiscus, citrus, coffee, sugar cane, annonas, plums, guava, mango, okra, sorrel, teak, mora, pigeon pea, peanut, grapevine, maize, asparagus, chrysanthemum, beans, cotton, soybean, cocoa, and many other plants...
).
Distribution
This species is believed to be native to Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico. It has spread to certain Caribbean Islands, Hawaii and French Guiana, and also to parts of southeast Asia including India, Indonesia and Thailand. It was discovered in Bradenton, FloridaBradenton, Florida
Bradenton is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2007 population to be 53,471. Bradenton is the largest Principal City of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2007 estimated population of 682,833...
in 1998 feeding on hibiscus
Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...
and four years later it had been detected on eighteen different plant species in the state. It has since been found in Texas and California and it is likely to become more widely distributed on the Gulf Coast, and perhaps also in crops grown under glass further north in the United States.
Had been intruduced around Feb. 2010 to the island of Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
.
Host plants
The papaya mealybug feeds on over fifty five plants in more than twenty five genera. Economically important host plants include papaya, avocadoAvocado
The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
, citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
, mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
, cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
and pomegranate
Pomegranate
The pomegranate , Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between five and eight meters tall.Native to the area of modern day Iran, the pomegranate has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. From there it spread to Asian areas such as the Caucasus as...
, as well as hibiscus
Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...
, cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
, tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
, eggplant, peppers
Capsicum
Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...
, bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s, pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...
s and sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
.
Biology
The adult female deposits up to six hundred eggs into her ovisac over a period of one to two weeks. The eggs hatch ten days later and the crawlers, which resemble miniature versions of the adult female, disperse. There are four instarInstar
An instar is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each molt , until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or assume a new form. Differences between instars can often be seen in altered body proportions, colors, patterns, or...
s in the females and five in the males. The fifth instar male is a pupa in which the nymph undergoes metamorphosis
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation...
into a winged adult.
Damage
The papaya mealybug inserts its stylet into the epidermisEpidermis (botany)
The epidermis is a single-layered group of cells that covers plants' leaves, flowers, roots and stems. It forms a boundary between the plant and the external environment. The epidermis serves several functions, it protects against water loss, regulates gas exchange, secretes metabolic compounds,...
of the leaf or the skin of fruit or stem and feeds on the plant sap. At the same time it injects a toxic substance into the plant which results in chlorosis, distortion, stunting, early leaf and fruit fall, the production of honeydew
Honeydew (secretion)
Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids and some scale insects as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the gut's terminal opening. Honeydew is particularly common as a secretion in the Hemipteran...
, sooty mould
Sooty mold
Sooty molds are Ascomycete fungi which grow on plant exudates and the sugary honeydew secreted by insects such as aphids, scales, the whitefly, and other insects which suck sap from their host plants. The name itself is descriptive, as sooty mold is a black, powdery coating adhering to the leaves...
and possibly the death of the plant.
Biological control
Natural enemies of the papaya mealybug include the mealybug destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieriCryptolaemus montrouzieri
Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, common name Mealybug Ladybird is ladybird species endemic to Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. Unlike many of the often brightly-coloured Coccinellidae, it is predominantly brown and has no spots. It has been used as a biological control agent against Mealybugs...
), other lady beetles
Coccinellidae
Coccinellidae is a family of beetles, known variously as ladybirds , or ladybugs . Scientists increasingly prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as these insects are not true bugs...
, lacewings
Neuroptera
The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order contains some 6,010 species...
and hover flies
Hoverfly
Hoverflies, sometimes called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the larvae eat a wide range of foods...
. The larvae of several species of wasp in the family Encyrtidae
Encyrtidae
Encyrtidae is a large family of parasitic wasps, with some 3710 described species in some 455 genera . The larvae of the majority are primary parasitoids on Hemiptera, though other hosts are attacked, and details of the life history can be variable Encyrtidae is a large family of parasitic wasps,...
are parasitoid
Parasitoid
A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host...
s of papaya mealybugs in their original range.
In 1999, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture responsible for protecting animal health, animal welfare, and plant health. APHIS is the lead agency for collaboration with other agencies to protect U.S. agriculture from invasive pests and...
and the USDA Agricultural Research Service
Agricultural Research Service
The Agricultural Research Service is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture . ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area...
collected and reared four species of wasp from Mexico in a biological control experiment. They introduced them into Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and achieved a reduction of the papaya mealybug populations in both countries of over 95%. All four wasps were observed parasitising second and third instars of the papaya mealybug but Acerophagus papayae was the dominant species. All four have since been mass reared and released in Florida.