Parasitoid wasp Jaliscoa hunteri Crawford (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) can effectively suppress pepper weevil (Anthonomus eugenii Cano) at both first and third larval instars

The pepper weevil (PW; Anthonomus eugenii Cano) is an economically important pest of all varieties of Capsicum sp. pepper. It has a cryptic lifestyle, with immature stages developing entirely within pepper buds or fruit, making control through sprayed insecticide difficult. An innovative tool for the biological control of PW is through the generalist parasitoid wasp Jaliscoa hunteri Crawford, a wasp that has been collected widely across North America. Though previous work has demonstrated the wasp can suppress PW populations in field pepper crops, much of the wasps’ interaction with PW remains unstudied. In the present study, the effectiveness of J. hunteri at suppressing PW populations at different host larval life stages and variable wasp exposure periods is examined using ornamental pepper plants Capsicum annuum var. Blaze. After a seven-day exposure period of J. hunteri to third instar PW larvae, the percentage of adult PW that emerged was significantly reduced by 65.8%. Furthermore, following four-day exposures of the wasp to either first or third instar larvae there was a 17.9% and 44.3% reduction respectively in the number of PW adults that emerged. Even at shorter exposure periods, J. hunteri wasps reduced the number of emerging adult PW compared to infested plants with no parasitoids (controls). These findings therefore support the utilization of J. hunteri as a potential biological control agent for the management of PW.