Parasitization of Dipterous Leaf Miners in Cantaloups and Lettuce in the Salt River Valley, Arizona

Abstract

Ten spp. of chalcids and 5 of braconids were reared from leaf miner-infested leaves, of which 78-92% of the parasitization was attributed to 3 spp. of chalcids. Of these Halticoptera aenea was the most numerous. The crop of lettuce is considered responsible for the over-wintering of the leaf miner population which infests young cantaloups in April. In small-plot expts. in 1950 repeated applications of DDT to cantaloups were ineffective against infesting leaf miners, but killed the parasites, resulting in an increase in leaf miner populations.