Author(s)

Thalles Cardoso Mattoso¹, Denise Delores Oliveira Moreira¹, Thais Berçot Pontes Teodoro¹, Claudio Luiz Moreira de Souza^1,2, Rita de Kássia Guarnier da Silva¹, Veronica de Morais¹, Carlos Peres Silva³, Milton Erthal Jr.^2,4, Richard Ian Samuels^1*

¹Laboratório de Entomologia e Fitopatologia, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
²Universidade Candido Mendes, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.
⁴Instituto Federal Fluminense Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The biology of a koinobiont parasitoid of leaf-cutting ant larvae, Szelenyiopria talitae (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae), was studied from naturally infested Acromyrmex subterraneus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) nests. Nests were collected in the field from the Atlantic rainforest biome in the state of Rio de Janeiro. A total of fifty-three nests were collected from 2015 to 2018. Parasitized nests were only found during the months of September and October. Approximately 22% of the nests collected over a four-year period were found to have been parasitized by S. talitae. The mean within-nest parasitism rate was 66.3%. This diapriid displayed both solitary (14%) and gregarious parasitism (86%), with up to a maximum of 12 parasitoids developing within a single host. Gregarious parasitism with two (29%) or three (21%) S. talitae per host was most frequently observed. There was a positive correlation between the number of parasitoids per host and host size (dry weight), indicating that S. talitae females oviposited a higher number of eggs in larger hosts. There was also a negative correlation between S. talitae pharate adult size and the number of parasitoids per host, which could have been caused by sibling competition for limited host resources. The high levels of parasitism seen here had a debilitating effect on the colonies. Acromyrmex subterraneus is a serious pest in Brazil, and these studies lay the foundation for understanding the impact of S. talitae on ant populations.

Formicidae, Leaf Cutting Ant, Pest, Koinobiont

Mattoso, T. , Oliveira Moreira, D. , Pontes Teodoro, T. , de Souza, C. , Guarnier da Silva, R. , Morais, V. , Silva, C. , Erthal Jr., M. and Samuels, R. (2021) The Biology of Szelenyiopria talitae (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae): Larval Parasitoid of the Leaf-Cutting Ant Acromyrmex subterraneus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Advances in Entomology, 9, 131-145. doi: 10.4236/ae.2021.93012.