The passionvine mealybug, Planococcus minor (Maskell) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), and its natural enemies in the cocoa agroecosystem in Trinidad Antonio W. Francis a,⇑ , Moses T.K. Kairo a , Amy L. Roda b , Oscar E. Liburd c , Perry Polar d a Florida A&M University, College of Engineering Sciences, Technology, and Agriculture, Center for Biological Control, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA b USDA-APHIS-PPQ-Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, Miami, FL 33158, USA c Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA d Caribbean Network for Land and Urban Management, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad highlights " Planococcus minor is found in Trinidad where little was known about the pest. " The mealybug was widely distributed on cocoa and infestation levels were low. " Cocoa field sites were surveyed for natural enemies. " We identified key natural enemies attacking the mealybug. " Their identification is a key step in the biological control process. graphical abstract article info Article history: Received 11 August 2011 Accepted 2 December 2011 Available online 13 December 2011 Keywords: Planococcus minor Biological control Parasitoids Parasitism Hyperparasitoids Predators abstract Planococcus minor (Maskell) is native to South Asia, but it is also present in several Neotropical locations including the island of Trinidad in the southern Caribbean. The mealybug poses a serious threat to unin- fested countries in this region as well as the mainland U.S. As part of an effort to gather much needed information on P. minor, 33 cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) field sites on the island were surveyed in 2006 with a view to assess the occurrence and pest status of the mealybug. P. minor was identified from 20 field sites, indicating that it was well distributed across the island on this crop, which appeared to be a reliable indicator host plant. Infestation levels were generally low and populations were sparsely dis- tributed across the field sites categorized into three habitat types. The following year, nine field sites were surveyed for natural enemies of P. minor using laboratory-infested potatoes in sentinel traps. Spe- cies from four insect orders and six families were collected and identified. The major predators belonged to the families Cecidomyiidae and Coccinellidae. Two primary parasitoids, Leptomastix dactylopii Howard (Encyrtidae) and Coccidoxenoides perminutus (Girault) (=Pauridia peregrina Timberlake, =Coccidoxenoides peregrinus (Timberlake)) (Encyrtidae), were reared from different mealybug stages, along with several hyperparasitoids. The primary parasitoids were probably introduced fortuitously. These diverse natural enemies were recovered throughout the sampling period from the different habitat types. The identifica- tion of key natural enemies associated with P. minor has important implications for the implementation of biological control in newly infested areas. Ó 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1049-9644/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2011.12.002 ⇑ Corresponding author. Fax: +1 850 412 7263. E-mail address: antoniowfrancis@gmail.com (A.W. Francis). Biological Control 60 (2012) 290–296 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Biological Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ybcon