Mango mealybug: infestation and damage in Senegal

Rastrococcus invadens (Willams, 1986) (Homoptera, Pseudococcidae) or mealybug is an insect pest of mango and several other fruit trees including citrus. The mealybug is native to Southeast Asia and was first identified in Senegal in Dakar in 1995 (Han et al., 2007). Since then, it has been widely distributed throughout the country, especially in the two most fruit-producing areas: Casamance and Thiès. To better understand the population dynamics of Rastrococcus invadens, surveys and investigations were conducted in the regions of Thiès and natural Casamance. This work conducted between September 2015 and August 2017, consists in making an inventory of all edible host plants of the insect in order to assess the degree of infestation, damage and cost of losses. A total of 17 species of edible host plants were inventoried and classified into two groups according to the degree of infestation. However, of the four mango varieties studied (kent, keitt, séwé and bouko diékhal), damage was more pronounced on (séwé and keitt) but the cost of losses was higher on kent.