Association of the soil insect Scaptocoris minor Berg (Heteroptera, Cydnidae) with foci of bud-rot diseases of oil palm in eastern Ecuador

The bud-rot fatal diseases represent a threat to the economically important oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) through all Latin America. The etiology in Ecuador is still unknown. It is assumed that insect transmission of an unknown pathogen is possible but there is a lack of evidence for transmission by an aerial insect. Therefore it was interesting to dedicate some observations to the piercing-sucking insect living on the roots of the oil palm in Eastern Ecuador which had been identified as Scaptocoris sp. The observations took place in the highly affected plantation Palmeras del Ecuador, Sucumbíos province, in 1999. Collected specimens on the oil palm roots were identified as Scaptocoris minor Berg (Heteroptera, Cydnidae). S. minor presence on the roots of palms was more frequent inside the bud-rot foci than in less affected areas (borders of the foci and in younger plots without foci). It is important to consider S. minor as a potential vector of bud-rot diseases of the oil palm in Ecuador and it should be tested