Identification of egg parasitoids of rice leafhoppers and planthoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae and Delphacidae) of economic importance in Taiwan, part 2: Trichogrammatidae (Hymenoptera)

Abstract

Lectotype female of Japania andoi (= Paracentrobia ( Brachistella ) bicolor ) (left); lectotype slide of Japania andoi (middle); and Pseudoligosita nephotetticum male (right). Photos by Serguei Vladimirovich Triapitsyn and Junsuke Yamasako. • Trichogrammatidae egg parasitoids of five rice leafhopper and planthopper pests were identified in Taiwan. • Sentinel egg method was used to establish reliable host associations of the egg parasitoids. • Pseudoligosita nephotetticum is shown to be the predominant egg parasitoid of rice leafhoppers and planthoppers. • Pseudoligosita nephotetticum is newly recorded from eggs of zig-zag leafhopper Maiestas dorsalis . Trichogrammatid egg parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) of rice leafhoppers and planthoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae and Delphacidae) known from Taiwan are identified taxonomically and illustrated, and their host associations are determined by rearings using sentinel eggs of the key pest species. The previously published records of such egg parasitoids in Taiwan are critically analyzed in the unfortunate absence of almost any voucher specimens. Pseudoligosita nephotetticum (Mani) is shown to be the most common egg parasitoid of the two leafhopper and three planthopper pests of rice in Taiwan: the zig-zag leafhopper Maiestas dorsalis (Motschulsky) (a new host record), the green rice leafhopper Nephotettix cincticeps (Uhler), and the delphacids Laodelphax striatella (Fallén) (small brown planthopper), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (brown planthopper), and Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) (whitebacked planthopper). Paracentrobia ( Brachistella ) andoi (Ishii) syn. nov., originally described from Japan as Japania andoi Ishii, and Paracentrobia ( Brachistella ) garuda Subba Rao syn. nov. from Thailand are synonymized under Paracentrobia ( Brachistella ) bicolor (Girault) from northern Queensland, Australia; Pseudoligosita tachikawai (Yashiro) syn. nov., originally described as Oligosita tachikawai Yashiro from Japan, is synonymized under Pseudoligosita nephotetticum . Lectotypes are designated for Japania andoi and Oligosita shibuyae Ishii.