Monitoring Cephalonomia stephanoderis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) an Ectoparasitoid of Coffee Berry Borer in Puerto Rico Coffee Fields

Cephalonomia stephanoderis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) is a solitary ectoparasitoid of Coffee Berry Borer (CBB) that is established in the field in Puerto Rico but poorly studied. Five coffee farms in Maricao, Lares, Utuado, Adjuntas, and Jayuya were surveyed monthly from February 2022 to January 2023 for evidence of C. stephanoderis. On each collection date, fifty dry and fifty mature ripe coffee berries were collected from the tree and held for emergence of CBB adults and parasitoids. From January to April 2023, we collected 50 dry berries (“raisins”) from the same sites but placed each berry in a separate tube to count the number of C. stephanoderis and the number of unparasitized CBB adults which emerged so that we could estimate percent parasitism. In 2022, results showed that dry berries produced significantly more parasi-toids than mature berries. Infested coffee berries from Adjuntas contained the most C. stephanoderis and coffee berries from Jayuya had the fewest. Temperature negatively affects the parasitoid population, while relative humidity and alti-tude effects were not significant. In 2023, the parasitoid population was highest in February and decreased steadily until the end of sampling in April. The percentage parasitism ranged from 2.79% to 4.97% across collection sites. The potential for augmentation biological control for C. stephanoderis and classical biological control via the introduction of other CBB parasitoids are discussed.