Yellow Sticky Traps for Monitoring Males and Two Parasitoids of Oracella acuta (Lobdell) (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae)²

Yellow sticky traps were tested as a method of monitoring populations of males and parasitoids of the mealybug, Oracella acuta (Lobdell). Male O.acuta were captured even when female populations appeared very low. The parasitoids, Allotropa n. sp. and Zarhopalus debarri Sun, were trapped less frequently than O. acuta males, and more traps or longer trapping periods were required to adequately monitor their populations. Significantly more males than females of Z.debarri were trapped, suggesting that yellow traps were more attractive to males, or that males disperse more than females. Yellow sticky traps could be used as part of a biological control program monitoring the establishment and spread of O. acuta and its parasitoids in China.