Desenvolvimento de Planococcus citri (Risso, 1813) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) em cafeeiros

Abstract

The citrus mealybug Planococcus citri (Risso, 1813) feeds mainly on flowers and fruits of coffee plants from blooming until harvest. Little is known about its development in coffee although its occurrence is already known for several years. This work aims to study the nymph development of this mealybug in coffee plants. Eggs were isolated from a stock culture kept in laboratory and placed inside Petri dishes containing leaf sections in agar. The tested cultivars were Acaia Cerrado, Mundo Novo, Catuai Vermelho (Coffea arabica) and Apoatã (C. canephora). Insects were kept in a climatized chamber at 25ºC, 70 ± 10% humidity and 12-hour photophase. The longest development period in females was obtained in cultivar Catuai Vermelho. No differences in mortality were found among cultivars. Mealybugs developed in all cultivars and the results did not show clear differences in susceptibility.