2022 Volume 64 Pages 1-6
The stink bug, Cletus punctiger (Hemiptera: Coreidae), is widely distributed throughout Japan, and is considered a serious pest that feeds on rice ears, thereby leading to pecky rice. In 2019 and 2020, we studied egg parasitoid species of C. punctiger in a field of gramineous grasses, and examined the seasonal trends in parasitism. Four parasitoids, Gryon japonicum, Gryon marina, Gryon nigricorne (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), and Ooencyrtus nezarae (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), emerged from C. punctiger eggs. The percentage parasitism attributed to these four parasitoids was less than 40% in both years of the study. Among the identified parasitoids, G. marina was predominant, whereas parasitism by the other three parasitoids was comparatively limited. It has been established that these parasitoids parasitize the eggs of several species of stink bugs; however, to the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to identify G. marina, G. nigricorne, and O. nezarae as parasitoids of C. punctiger eggs.
