author(s)
Megaladevi P, JS Kennedy, S Jeyarani, S Nakkeeran and D Balachandar

abstract
Acerophagus papayae Noyes and Schauff (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Encyrtidae), is the efficient parasitoid for the suppression of papaya mealybug Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink. Host plant volatiles are important cues in the parasitoid host selection process. Hence, parasitoids orientation behaviour towards different host plants of papaya mealybugs were tested using olfactometer. Results say in the experiment with healthy host plant leaves that parasitoids highly preferred for the papaya host plant followed by mulberry, parthenium, tapioca, brinjal and control with 2.67, 1.72, 0.83, 0.56, 0.39 and 0.11 number of parasitoids attracted, respectively. In addition, when infested host plant leaves with mealybugs were studied, the parasitoids highly preferred for the papaya host plant followed by mulberry, parthenium, tapioca, brinjal and control with 3.61, 2.11, 0.89, 0.61, 0.28 and 0.17 number of parasitoids attracted, respectively. Hence, the identification of volatile compounds in the preferred and non-preferred host plants is of future scope.