Parasitoids of fruit flies collected in Brazil

The objective of this work was to know the parasitoids of fruit flies in western Minas Gerais and southern Goiás region, Brazil. Then fruits (orange, carrabolla, guava, mango and cherry) were deposited on a 5cm layer of fine sand in plastic cylindrical, transparent and open at the top containers. Weekly pupae were separated from the substrate by flotation. Removed and placed in glass jars with fine sand kept at room temperature until the emergence of flies and/or their parasitoids. Trichopria Anastrepha Costa Lima (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae) was the most common in western Minas specie with 44.5% and Doryctobracon areolatus (Szépligeti) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the most collected species in southern Goiás with 89.6%.


Introduction Introduction
Among the many Brazilian agricultural sectors, horticulture noteworthy due to positive characteristics it plays in rural setting. T his agricultural activity is present in all Brazilian states and involves more than 5 million people who work directly or indirectly evidencing its importance as an economic activity, generating jobs and responsible farmers remain in rural areas (Fachinello et al., 2011).
T he fruit flies (Diptera: T ephritidae) cause economic damage to fruit due to early fruit drop or its depreciation for consumption (Leonel Jr. et al., 1991;Rabelo et al., 2013;Veloso et al., 2012). T he fruit flies have wide geographical distribution, being found almost worldwide (Aluja, 1994;1999;Machado et al., 1995), and causing damage to fruit species of economic importance.
Among the means for controlling flies, chemical insecticides are the most widely used.
However, these maylose their efficiency as populations become resistant to them (Silveira et al., 1989). T he appearance of resistance to insecticides explains the growing need to introduce alternative control programs aimed towards insects control (Silveira et al., 1989).
As a possibility to control these insects, the natural regulators can be used, such as parasitoids that are the responsible agents for the reduction of the insects pests populations (Vilela et al., 1999;Garcia and Ricalde, et al., 2013).
Parasitoids are responsible for reducing the populations of flies that proliferate on various substrates. Evaluation of these species for natural control over these insects is important for enabling studies that aim towards subsequent selection of species for use in biological control programs (Marchiori and Penteado-Dias, 2001). T here is little information on native species of hymenopteran parasitoids of fruit flies from the Neotropical region.
T he objective of this study was to understand the main species of parasitoids of frugivorous flies in southern Goiás and west Minas Gerais, Brazil. Doryctobracon areolatus is solitary endoparasitoid, laying their eggs in the larval stage of fruit flies, but the adults emerge from the pupae of the host (Araújo et al., 1972).
According to Nunes et al., (2012) among parasitoids, D. areolatus is more common in most of the sampled fruit. In Costa Rica, Jiron and Mexezon (1989) reported that there predominance of these species as parasitoid flies of the genus Anastrepha. According Ovruski et al. (2000) this species has a considerable potential for controlling populations of Anastrepha.
Regarding the total percentage of parasitism west region of Minas Gerais was 14.8% and southern Goiás 5.5% (T able 2). Probably related to the low synanthropy of the species of dipterans and parasitoids collected in the southern region of Goiás studied the locality is now surrounded by human populations on all sides.
T . anstrepha showed most percentage of parasitism in western Minas Gerais of 6.6 % in southern Goiás was D. areolatus with 5.0%. Guimarães et al. (1999), working in 27 municipalities in the five Brazilian regions, found that parasitism ranged from 0.007 to 42.86%.
It is possible to control these insects, by using the natural regulators such as parasitoids, responsible which are the agents for the reduction of the insect pests populations. .