THE PREDATORY CAPACITY OF Ceraeochrysa claveri (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) ON TUNA MOTH EGGS Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidotera: Pyralidae) IN LABORATORY CONDITIONS

REGUILÓN, CARMEN; FLORES, GABRIELA; CORREA, MARCELA; VALOY, MARIANA; ANDRACA, LUPITA; ORDANO, MARIANO

Tucumàn

Jornada; Jornadas Científicas de la Asociación de biología de Tucumán; 2011

Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica) cultivation is of great importance in arid and semi-arid regions of northwestern Argentina. Themoth Cactoblastis cactorum is the main pest that attacks plants,leading to loss of production. Ceraeochrysa claveri, one of the sevenspecies of the genus Ceraeochrysa in Argentina, is considered promising for biological integrated pest control due to its potential aspredators of crops pests. The aim of this paper was to evaluate thepredatory capacity of C. claveri on C. cactorum eggs in the laboratory. The rearing of the moth took place in the CIRPON cameraand the rearing of chrysopas and the predatory testing in a laboratory (T: 25-27ºC, HR:40-60%). We evaluated the ability of dailypredation (number of prey consumed) in the third stage larvae ofC. claveri on eggs of C. cactorum. It was determined that C. claveriduring the third instar larval stage preys on an average of 56.47 +9.89 eggs of the pest. The results show for the first time data concerning the capacity of C. claveri to act as a natural enemy for thecontrol of the prickly pear moth.