Agromyzidae (Diptera) Leafminers and Their Parasitoids in Weeds Associated with Tomato in Florida

Weeds adjacent to commercial tomato production fields on the west coast of Florida were surveyed during 1982–1983 to determine which species serve as reservoirs of Agromyzidae leaf miners and their parasitoids. About 95% of the leafminer larvae were observed in foliage of seven weed genera ( Solanum americanum Mill., Erechtites hieracifolia (L.), Bidens alba (L.), Gnaphalium spp., Physalis spp., Sonchus spp., and Rumex obtusifolius L.) and volunteer tomato even though these species accounted for only about 13–42% of the weed canopy. Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) and L. sativae Blanchard accounted for 45 and 40%, respectively, of the leafminer adults reared from infested foliage and were most prevalent from S. americanum and B. alba . The larval–pupal parasitoids Optus dissitus Muesebeck, Oenonogastra microrhopalae (Ashmead), and Halticoptera circulus (Walker) were the most abundant leafminer parasitoid adults reared from leafminer infested foliage, accounting for 37.8, 15.1, and 15.8%, respectively, of the total reared. The larval parasitoids Neochrysocharis punctiventris (Crawford), Diglyphus begini (Ashmead), and D. intermedius (Girault) accounted for 8, 5, and 2.5%, respectively.