FAMILY
Encyrtidae
TAXONOMY
Apoanagyrus lopezi De Santis, 1964, Chacras de Coria, Argentina.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
None known.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Small wasp, 0.027 in (1.4 mm) long. Black or shiny blue and violet coloring, with light areas.
DISTRIBUTION
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay. It was introduced and established in Africa (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leona, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Central African Republic, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and the Republic of South Africa).
HABITAT
Savanna, tropical rainforest, and highlands.
BEHAVIOR
Parasitoid on the nymphal stages of the cassava mealybug, Phenococcus manihoti (Hemiptera: Pseudoccocidae).
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Adults feed of nectar and pollen; immature insects are parasitoids.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Females copulate only once, whereas males may do it several times. Parthenogenesis also occurs, in which case all offspring are male. Females deposit about 40 eggs. Females feed on the exudate of wounds inflicted by the ovipositor on nymphal stages of the mealybug that serves as host for the young. The life cycle is complete in 11–25 days: egg, 2 days; larva, 6 days; prepupa, 4 days; pupa, 6 days.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
One of the most successful biological control programs used these wasps to eradicate the cassava mealybug, Phenacoccus manihoti. This pest was first reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1971, and within a few years it had infested nearly all of tropical Africa, devastating the primary sources of nutrition for 200 million people. The introduction of Apoanagyrus lopezi immediately produced spectacular control in field trials in Nigeria; by 1990 these parasitoids had been established successfully in 24 African countries and had spread over more than 1 million mi2 (2 million km2). The mealybug is now under complete control throughout the whole of its range in Africa.
