Egg parasitoids of Podisus sculptus distant (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) in an Eucalyptus plantation in the Brazilian amazonian region.

genus Podisus, have been reported as natural enemies of many insect pests in North America (McPherson 1980). In Brazil, they have been registered in plantations of Eucalyptus (Zanuncio et al. 1994b), Pinus (Teixeira and Villa 1987), soybean and cotton (Grazia and Hildebrand 1987), coffee (Gravena and Lara 1982), cashew (Silva 1965), passion fruit (Costa Lima 1940), avocado (Fischer and Patel 1989) and beans (Jacomino et al. 1989). For this reason, species of this group are important as biological control agents of many species of defoliator caterpillars and other insects, both in natural occurrence and in programmed releases (Zanuncio et al. 1994a). Species of predatory bugs of the genus Podisus present wide distribution and can be found in most Brazilian States such as Goiás (Zanuncio et al. 1991), Ceará (Silva 1965), Mato Grosso do Sul (Jacomino et al. 1989), Pará (Zanuncio et al. 1993), Rio Grande do Sul (Gastal 1981), São Paulo (Teixeira and Villa 1987), Espírito Santo (Moraes et al. 1983), Rio de Janeiro (Guajará et al. 1993) and Minas Gerais (Zanuncio et al. 1994a). Grazia and Hildebrand (1987) consider that Podisus nigrispinus Dallas, Podisus cloelia Stal, Podisus sagitta Fab. (=P. nigrispinus), Podisus thetis Stal and Podisus volxemi are the most common species of this group in Brazil. Although P. nigrispinus and Brontocoris tabidus Signoret are the best known Pentatomidae predators in Brazil (Zanuncio et al. 1992), other species of this genus, Podisus sculptus Distant is found in the State of Pará, Brazil and in Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Bolivia (Thomas 1992). Few species of Pentatomidae predatory species have been used in biological control Rev. Biol. Trop., 48(4): 989-992, 2000 www.ucr.ac.cr www.ots.ac.cr www.ots.duke.edu