2006 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a trust agreement between ARS and the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association (HPIA) and the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation (HFBF). Additional details of research can be found in the report for the parent CRIS 5320-43000-014-00D "Postharvest Treatment of Tropical Commodities for Quarantine Security, Quality Maintenance, and Value Enhancement." Grant funds from the HPIA and the HFBF are being used to initiate a classical biological control program against white peach scale (WPS) in Hawaii. Two parasitoids, Encarsia berlesei and Encarsia diaspidicola, which have shown excellent results against WPS in other crops in other countries, will be imported into quarantine to determine their host specificity and potential for harm to native insects. Methods to raise WPS on potatoes and pumpkins in the laboratory have been developed, and a colony of WPS is being maintained at the USDA lab in Hilo in preparation for the project. USDA-APHIS permits to import the two parasitic wasps into quarantine from Samoa were obtained. Scales with parasitoids will be shipped to Hawaii and brought into the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park quarantine facility. Newly arriving colonies of WPS will be raised through at least one generation in quarantine to ascertain that no hyperparasites are present. Once a pure colony of the parasitoids is obtained, we will start the required host specificity testing. The two parasitoids are only known to attack diaspidid scales and there are no native diaspidid scales in Hawaii. Therefore, we are confident that the parasitoids will have minimal non-target impact and will eventually be approved for release against white peach scale in papaya in Hawaii.