Damage on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] caused by Euschistus heros (Fabricius) parasitized by Hexacladia smithii Ashmead was studied in greenhouse. Soybean plants, cultivar BR-37, were covered with nylon screen net and artificially infested with two bugs/plant, for a 15-day period, from the stage corresponding to the end of pod development (R4) up to filled seeds (R5-R6). Plants infested by non-parasitized bugs were compared with plants infested by bugs parasitized by H. smithii and with non-infested plants (control), with 20 replicates per treatment. The yield (g/plant), total number of pods and number of failed pods per plant did not differ between plants attacked by non-parasitized as well as by parasitized bugs, but they both differed from the control. Similarly, the qualitative analysis of seeds (good, medium and bad) and the tetrazolium test (punctured seeds, damaged seeds and vigor) demonstrated the same effect. However, the germination potentiality of the seeds attacked by parasitized bugs was higher than those seeds attacked by non-parasitized ones, indicating that a lower damage was caused by parasitized bugs.
Insecta; soybean IPM; biological control; brown stink bug; parasitoid
