Is Ceraeochrysa cubana a coffee leaf miner predator?

Abstract

Coffee leaf miner (CLM), Leucoptera coffeella, is a key pest of unshaded coffee in hot, dry neotropical production areas. Control is hampered by CLM mining behavior that reduces biological control and pesticide efficacy. Therefore, finding natural enemies that can efficiently control CLM could improve conservation and augmentative biological control practices, and potentially reduce reliance on increasingly ineffective insecticide applications. The green lacewing Ceraeochrysa cubana is a generalist predator often found in coffee crops in Brazil, but there is little information regarding its potential contribution to CLM control. We investigated whether C. cubana preys on immature stages of CLM and whether predation levels vary according to life stage of C. cubana or CLM. First, second and third instar C. cubana readily consumed CLM eggs, but once inside mines, few CLM larvae were consumed. Second and third instar C. cubana successfully preyed on CLM pupae, but first instars did not. Thus, all three instars of C. cubana were able to prey on at least one immature stage of CLM, with potential to impede mine formation and adult emergence.