Abstract
Abstract. 1. The common cassidid beetle, Stolas sp., feeds as both larva and adult on the leaves of the vine, Ipomoea asarifolia, a wild relative of the sweet potato.2. In the region around Manaus (Amazonas State, Brazil) an average of 86% of the egg clutches were completely parasitized by the eulophid, Emersonella niveipes.3. The wasp is phoretic on female beetles. In comparison with field beetles that lacked phoretic wasps, beetles associated with wasps produced eggs sooner, laid more egg clutches, and had a shorter laboratory life expectancy.4. Host discrimination by the wasp is probably an active process rather than a passive association with randomly encountered beetles.5. Emersonella niveipes also attacks Chelymorpha cassidea, a pest of sweet potato. Adults of Stolas sp. do not feed on sweet potato foliage nor occur in sweet potato fields, so they could provide a useful innocuous alternate host for Emersonella niveipes.6. As some species in the Convovulaceae are important weeds in field crops, foliage‐feeding cassidid beetles may play a useful role in weed suppression. Any biological control programme for the suppression of sweet potato pests may favour the spread of those noxious weeds that share the herbivore fauna of sweet potatoes.
Published Version
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