Susceptibility of the parasitoid Phymastichus coffea LaSalle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) to Beauveria bassiana under laboratory conditions

The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is the most important coffee pest worldwide. Beauveria bassiana is a generalist entomopathogenic fungus widely used by coffee farmers to control this pest and Phymastichus coffea LaSalle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is an African endoparasitoid of H. hampei adults, recently imported to several Latin American and Caribbean countries to aid in the coffee berry borer control. The objective of this study was to determine if B. bassiana is detrimental to P. coffea. The susceptibility of the parasitoid was evaluated in terms of adult survivorship, mean lethal concentration (LC50), mean lethal time (LT50), reproduction and immature mortality. The main effect of the fungus resulted in reduction of adult longevity and mortality of 100% for immature stages of this parasitoid. The LC50 for adults was 0.11% equivalent to 9.53 x 107 conidia/ml of B. bassiana and a LT50 of 29.4h, equivalent to reduction of 22% of its normal longevity as an adult. P. coffea was capable of disseminating spores of B. bassiana to non-infected H. hampei adults, which could indirectly cause the death of its own progeny. These results could be valuable when considering the use of both organisms in the field, especially in an integrated pest management program.