Puig, A.S., Wurzel, S., Suarez, S., Niogret, J., & Marelli, J.-P. 2021a Molecular Identification of Mealybug Species (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) Affecting Theobroma cacao for Improved Pest Management. Proceedings of the 1st International Electronic Conference on Entomology, doi:10.3390/IECE- 10399

Keywords:

molecular data

Notes: Effective management of mealybugs depends on accurate identification of species present, as even closely related species have distinct life cycles and are vulnerable to different biological control organisms. This study compares the usefulness of the COI, ITS2, and 28S markers using the primer pairs (MFCO1/MRCO1, ITS2-M-F/ITS2-M-R, D10F/D10R, and D2F/D2R) to identify mealybugs associated with cacao plants in North America. All markers were informative for Pseudococcus comstocki and Maconellicoccus hirsutus, but only CO1 provided unambiguous identification for Pseudococcus jackbeardsleyi. This study describes molecular diagnostic protocols for identifying cacao-associated mealybugs and detecting the presence of certain parasitoids