Identification of Plant Families Associated with the Predators Chrysoperla Externa (Hagen) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) and Hippodamia Convergens Guerin-Meneville (Coleoptera: Coccinelidae) Using Pollen Grain As a Natural Marker/Identificacao de Familias de Plantas Associadas Aos Predadores Chrysoperla Externa (Hagen) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) E Hippodamia Convergens Guerin-Meneville .. (Report‪)‬

1. Introduction Entomopalynology is the study of how insects use pollen and how pollen grains adhere themselves to the body of the insects during their search for feeding resources. This study allows determining routes of migration, plants that are used for feeding, as well as plants which the insects pollinate (Jones et al., 1995). Pollen is very useful in those studies because they can be identified in family and genus; moreover, the identification of the pollen can supply much information on the geographic origin of the plant (Jones and Jones, 2001). However, the main limitation for this technique is precisely the lack of studies about identification and classification of pollen that are found in a given region of the country (Silberbauer et al., 2004). In the Distrito Federal, Brazil, this problem is not a constraint, since there is an important palynological study of the regional vegetation, the scrubland, including identification keys (Salgado-Laboriau, 1973), which makes studies involving palynological analysis possible.