Distribution of the coffee leaf miner, Leucoptera coffeella, and its parasitoids in the canopy of coffee, Coffea arabica in Puerto Rico

Abstract

An experiment was established in the summer of 1 986 to study the distribution of the coffee leaf miner and its parasitoids within the coffee tree canopy. Mean estimates of percentage parasitization were 13.20, 14.32, and 16.00 at tree heights of 0-1, 1-2, and 2-3 m, respectively. The experiment failed to show a significant difference between parasitization of the coffee leaf miner at different levels in the canopy. Mined leaf index estimates of 0.7, 0.7 and 0.3 were obtained at 0-1 , 1-2 and 2-3 m, respectively. This experiment shows that L. coffeella acts at all levels in the tree canopy, although more so at lower levels.