Phenacoccus manihoti

Description

Phenacoccus manihoti is a scale insect species. In the early 1970s, the cassava mealybug P. manihoti was accidentally introduced to Africa. Within 15 years of its discovery, it had invaded most of West and Central Africa and was spreading to the East. It soon became an important pest, and methods to control it became a topic of interest. The cassava mealybug was successfully suppressed at a continent-wide scale by the introduction of a specialist parasitic wasp, originally discovered in the mealybug's region of origin (i.e., Paraguay, Southern Brazil). This so-called 'biological control' endeavor was awarded with the 1995 World Food Prize being handed to Swiss entomologist Hans Rudolf Herren.