The coffee tree leaf-miner Leucoptera coffeella (Guérin-Méneville) (Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae) has recently become the most important pest of that crop, mainly in coffee groves below 1.300 m of altitude. In order to obtain more information about the population fluctuations of both the leaf-miner and its parasites, periodic population samplings we re made from June 1981 to May 1982 in two severely afected coffee growing localities of the Departamento del Valle, Colombia.
Populations of the leaf-miner and of several parasites were found throughout the year. Eight microhymenopteran species: Seven Eulophids, parasites of the larvae, and one Braconid, parasite of the pupae, were identified. Pnigalio sarasolai De Santis y Cirrospilus (Zagrammosoma) zebralineatum De Santis, are reported for the first time in the world.
Percent incidence of parasitism was assessed for each species, being the more abundant Closterocercus coffeellae Thering., P. sarasolai and Achrysocharella livida (Ashmead) Populational fluctuations of the involved species were correlated among them and with the rainfall regime in an effort to establish their effects on the population fluctuation of the leaf-miner and its parasites.
