author(s)
Moubarak Kondow, Seth W Nyamador, Kokouvi Kounouchi, Hada Bassimbako, Guy C Gogovor, Komina Amevoin and Et Isabelle A Glitho

abstract
The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Willink's Granara (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is an exotic, invasive and polyphagous insect that causes considerable damage to several plant species of economic importance in sub-Saharan Africa. Its preferred host plants are cotton, cassava, jatropha and especially papaya. To contribute to the efficient and sustainable management of populations of this pest in Togo, the fluctuation in its populations was monitored in 2016 in the urban and peri-urban areas of Lomé. The monitoring, based on direct observations of papaya plants, showed that the infestation rate of papaya trees by P. marginatus and the population density of this species varied with the sites surveyed and were relatively higher in the dry season with values ranging from 56.66 ± 29.69% to 86.66 ± 29.81% and from 0.04 ± 0.05 to 1.72 ± 2.13 ind./cm², respectively. These data allow to determine the parasite procession associated with this pest on the one hand and to study the interactions between these natural enemies and the mealybug on the other hand.