New records of parasitism of the \Fuller's rose weevil" Naupactus cervinus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) in Argentina

FERMAMDEZ GOYA, L-; CABRIO, V. ; CONFALONIERI, V.A; LANTERI, A. A.; MARCELA RODRIGUERO

virtual

Congreso; II Virtual Meeting of Systematics, Biogeography, and Evolution: The Research of Biodiversity and the Diversity of Researchers; 2021

SBE meeting 2021's organizing committe

Naupactus cervinus is an invasive species native to South America and distributedthroughout the world. It is considered a pest of citrus in several countries becauseof root herbivory. Also, eggs on fruit have been a quarantine barrier for exportsof citrus and kiwifruit to markets in East Asia. Study of natural parasitoids ofthis weevil is important in order to develop possible biological control strategies.We studied two parasitoids found in adult females of N. cervinus collected in EntreRos province, Argentina. DNA was extracted and the mitochondrial COI genewas amplied and sequenced. Wolbachia infection was diagnosed through PCR andcharacterized through MLST genotyping. BLAST analysis suggested one of the parasitoidswas 85-91% similar to several Braconidae (order Hymenoptera).The otherparasitoid shared a 93-97% identity with the COI sequences of several Tachinidae(order Diptera). Then, for each parasitoid we performed a family-level analysis byretrieving sequences of several related genera from GenBank and BOLD databases.MRMODELTEST v.2.4 was used to establish the best t model of nucleotide substitutionand MRBAYES v.3.2.7a was used to perform Bayesian inference. Wealso compared COI genetic distances between our samples and putative congenericspecies by pairwise comparisons using MEGA v.6, thus testing whether our genuslevelidentication was compatible in terms of genetic variability. The hymenopteranparasitoid fell within the genus Microctonus with high nodal support. A previousstudy by Rodriguero et al. (2014) rst reported a Micronoctus sp. parasitoid for N.cervinus but the species herein studied would be dierent from the former. Untilpresent, none of them could be identied based on COI gene sequences (they do notmatch with those of known species), or by morphology of the larvae (we did notobtain adult specimens of the parasitoid). This wasp was infected with the wNau5strain, the same present in N. cervinus. This enforces the ongoing hypothesis thatparasitoids are vehicles for Wolbachia horizontal transmission. The other parasitoidhere reported belongs to the genus Oestrophasia within the family Tachinidae. TheTachinids gather several endoparasitoids of insects, and Oestrophasia is associatedwith some Neotropical broad-nosed weevils, e.g. Oestrophasia sabroskyi in Artipusoridanus. Until present we could not identify the species associated with N.cervinus. In this case, the parasitoid was not infected with Wolbachia.