author(s)
VS Nagrare, V Chinna Babu Naik, Bhausaheb Vithoba Naikwadi and Nandini Gokte Narkhedkar

abstract
Mealybugs are worldwide indoor and outdoor pests of agricultural and horticultural crops. In India, nine species of mealybugs have been recorded infesting cotton with varying degrees of infestation ranging from low to severe reducing seed cotton yield up to 50 % failing management. In this study an attempt was made to document spatio-temporal diversity of natural enemies of mealybugs infesting cotton in central India. Surveys were carried out during 2009 to 2016 in 22 districts of central India which revealed a wide diversity of natural enemies viz., 16 species of parasitoids Aenasius aerizonensis (Girault), Acerophagous papayae Noyes & Schauff, Metaphycus sp., Aprostocetus bangaloricus Narendran, Encyrtus aurantii (Geoffroy), Aprostocetus sp., Anagyrus dactylopii (Howard), Anagyrus mirzai Agarwal and Alam, Homalotylus albiclavatus (Agarwal), Homalotylus sp., Anagyrus kamali Moursi, Chartocerus kerrichi (Agarwal), Pachyneuron leucopiscida Mani and 8 species of predators viz., Brumus sp., Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius), Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant), Chrysoperla carnea (Stephans), Nephus regularis (Sicard), Rodolia fumida Mulsant, Scymnus coccivora Ayyar on five species of mealybugs viz., Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead), Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink, Rastrococcus iceryodes and Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green). Pachyneuron leucopiscida Mani, Promuscidea unfasciativentris (Girault), Prochiloneurus pulchellus Silvestri and Prochiloneurus aegypticus (Mercet) are termed as hyperparasitoids. A. arizonensis was the most dominant parasitoid of P. solenopsis recorded every year starting from 2009 to 2016 in most the locations surveyed with average parasitization 14.1% (9-27%) over these years. Maximum parasitization (37%) of P.solenopsis by A.arizonensis was found in the month of September coinciding with boll development stage of the crop and thereafter recedes in subsequent months.