PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 85(2), 1983, pp. 384-387 HOST SPECIFICITY TESTS OF AN EGG PARASITE, EDOVUM PUTTLERI (HYMENOPTERA: EULOPHIDAE), OF THE COLORADO POTATO BEETLE, LEPTINOTARSA DECEMLINEATA (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE) Benjamin Puttler and S. H. Long Biological Control of Insects Research Laboratory, Science and Education, Ag-ricultural Research Service USDA, Columbia, Missouri 65205. Abstract. — In host-specificity tests conducted in our laboratory with a eulophid egg parasite, Edovum puttleri Grissell reared from Leptinotarsa undecimlineata (StM) collected in Columbia, South America, the parasite successfully parasitized eggs of the Colorado potato beetle, L. decemlineata (Say), a previously unrecorded host. Eggs of ten species of coccinellids and eight species of chrysomelids were exposed to the parasite; however, none was found acceptable except for an oc-casional egg of Labidomera clivicollis (Kirby). • In February and March 1980, Ben Puttier surveyed for and collected a species of eulophid (Eulophidae: Entedontinae: Entedontini) from Colombia, South America. This species was reared from eggs of Leptinotarsa undecimlineata (Stal), a beetle that does not occur in the Nearctic but is widely distributed in the Neotropical Region. Specimens of the parasite submitted for identification were examined by E. E. Grissell, who concluded after a further study and in consultation with Z. Boucek that the parasite represented a new genus and species which he described as Edovum puttleri Grissell (Grissell, 1981). Initially, E. puttleri had been misplaced in the genus Emersonopsis and was referred to by Sanchez (1973) and Pasada and Garcia (1976). The primary purpose of our collecting Edovum puttleri was to determine wheth-er the parasite might accept eggs of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), which does not occur in Colombia, as a host for oviposition and development. If L. decemlineata proved acceptable, it would also be necessary to establish the parasite's relationship to other species of Nearctic Chrysomelinae (Chrysomelidae), the subfamily in which Leptinotarsa spp. are placed (Wilcox, 1972; Riley and Enns, 1979). We also wanted to know the parasite's reaction to our native species of Coccinellidae. Eggs of these beetles are similar in color, relative size, and shape and are usually laid in clusters (masses) on exposed leaf surfaces of their respective host plants, as are eggs of a number of subfamilies of Chrysomelidae. Because of the paucity of information on this parasite, we conducted host-specificity tests in an attempt to examine its host range and to determine whether it would parasitize eggs of other spp. of Coccinellidae, including predaceous species. Analogous studies were conducted by Angalet et al. (1968) and Schroder (1979)
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