SCIENTIFIC NOTE : COCCOPHAGUS SCUTELLARIS (DALMAN) (HYMENOPTERA: APHELINIDAE), A NEW RECORD PARASITOID ATTACKING SUGAR-CANE SOFT SCALE INSECT, PULVINARIA TENUVALVATA (NEWSTEAD) IN EGYPT

Soft scale Insects ( Homoptera : Coccidae ) are among the most important plant pests. These Insects are sap feeders resulting in debilitation of the host plant, and ex‌crete honeydew, which promotes the growth of saprophytic "sooty mould" that inhibits photosynthesis Recently, the sugar-cane soft scale, Pulvinaria tenuvalvata (Newstead) has be‌come serious sugar cane pest in Upper Egypt. The Egyptian sugar - cane growers got worried about this insects and entomolo‌gists at Ministry of Agricultural have paid to much care to manage this insects. Since sugar - cane is food crop, it was very difficult to use insecticides against P. tenuvalvata. Review of literature revealed that soft scale insects are usually attacked by many natural enemies , mainly parasitoids (Priesner & Hosny. 1940; Moursi, 1974; All , 1980: Hafer .1984 ; Prinsloo, 1984 ,Hamad &Flassanein .1991; Hendawy , 1999) . Therefore, II was necessary to search for P. tenuvalvata parasitolds in the Upper Egypt. Nymphs and adults of P. (minima were collected from infested sugar -cane plants at Luxor district in 2000 .The Insects were transferred to the laboratory, kept in jars having pieces of sugar -cane plants for feeding and provided with suitable mois‌ture. The insect was daily monitored till the complete of life cycle or the emergence of parasitoids. The tatters were primarily Identified as Coccophagus sp. by the biological control specialist, A. S. Hendavry (One of the teamwork of the current scientific note).