Biological Control of Insect Pests: Southeast Asian Prospects - EcoPort

246 Biological Control of Insect Pests: Southeast Asian Prospects
HAWAII
Damaging populations of O. phaseoli built up rapidly and caused
widespread damage to cultivated legumes after it was first recorded in 1968.
The only parasitoid found attacking it at that stage was the pteromalid
Halticoptera patellana, a polyphagous European parasite of agromyzids
(Greathead 1975).
INDIA
Ophiomyia phaseoli is said not to cause as serious damage to food legumes
in India as it does elsewhere, especially in Indonesia and East Africa
(Talekar 1990).
The pteromalid Chlorocytus sp. was reported to parasitise 8% to 10% of
O. phaseoli puparia infesting stems of soybean (Glycine max) in the New
Delhi area (Kundu 1985). In Bangalore, the pteromalid Sphegigaster
brunneicornis, which emerged from bean fly puparia in cowpea, was the
only parasitoid recorded. The extent of parasitisation ranged from 16.7% in
July to 85.5% in September, but this did not achieve adequate control
because bean fly infestation rose from 12% in July to 68% in September
(Peter and Balasubramanian 1984). Ipe (1987) recorded four parasitoids (a
eurytomid, Opius phaseoli, Tetrastichus sp. and Sphegigaster rugosa) from
Agra. He commented that Ophiomyia phaseoli infestations are kept under
control by parasitoids and that the percentage of parasitisation reaches
appreciable levels each season. Babu (1977) reported Polycystus sp.
emerging from bean fly puparia and causing parasitisation ranging from
3.4% during February to 61% in August. However, the highest levels of
attack are those recorded at Agra by Singh (1982) for Opius phaseoli and
Eurytoma sp.. The parasitisation of bean fly infesting cowpea reached 46.2%
during early October, rising to 94% by the end of November. From
December to March these parasites effectively controlled Ophiomyia
phaseoli populations infesting cowpea, garden pea and Lablab niger (Singh
1982).
It appears that the different species of bean fly parasitoids in India may
not occur at all widely. Whether this is due to climatic limitations, sampling
from different hosts, or overall inadequate sampling of populations remains
to be determined.
INDONESIA
The most comprehensive account of the biology, hosts and parasitoids of
bean fly in Indonesia was published in Dutch by Goot (1930). This was
translated into English and republished in 1984 by the Asian Vegetable
Research and Development Center Taiwan. A summary appears in
Kalshoven (1981).