Study on Parasitoids of Whitefly Associated with Brinjal Plants

Abstract

Whitefly is a worldwide pest causing yield loss and economic injury in many crop species including brinjal plants. The integrated control concept emphasizes the importance of biological control for pest suppression in agricultural systems. Therefore, this study was directed at developing biological control of whiteflies by identifying for native parasitoids of whiteflies on brinjal plants at the Agronomy farm, Eastern University of Sri Lanka. For that, brinjal leaves infested with whitefly nymphs were collected from the Agronomy farm, Eastern University of Sri Lanka and cultured in a humidity-controlled container at Agricultural Biology Laboratory until the parasitoids’ emergence. Then, the emerged parasitoids were identified to species level based on their morphological characteristics using the guidelines of Schmidt et al. (2001) and the browsed images from online. Encarsia cibcensis Lopez Avila and Eretmocerus californicus were the parasitoids identified from the research site. Among the identified parasitoids, Encarsia cibcensis Lopez Avila were more abundant than Eretmocerus californicus at the research site.