Description and Biological Studies of a New Species of Mercet, 1917 (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), A Parasitoid of Kondo & Gullan.

The guava cottony scale, Kondo & Gullan (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae), is an important pest of guava, L. (Myrtaceae) in northern Colombia and Venezuela. A species of (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) is the only known primary parasitoid associated with this insect pest. The parasitoid is herein described as Chirinos & Kondo, sp. nov., based on morphological characteristics of the adult female and male. Biological studies on adult longevity, fecundity, host preference, and sex ratio were conducted. The maximum longevity of the female and the male were 8.0 and 6.5 days, respectively, when fed with diluted honey. On average, a fed mated female laid approximately 40 eggs. Adult females of were shown to prefer to parasitize 11- to 15-day-old adult females of and do not parasitize first-instar nymphs of the host eriococcid. The female-to-male sex ratio of the parasitoid was 2.24: 1. When ovipositing females of were given only small-sized individuals (second-instar nymphs) of , generally the resulting progeny was a single male wasp. This parasitoid species has arrhenotokous reproduction and is a facultative gregarious parasitoid. These results show a short adult longevity, as well as a relatively low fecundity of the female compared with studies conducted on other species. This study provides essential baseline information for future biological control programmes for .