scholarly journals Distribution of Gonipterus Species and Their Egg Parasitoids in Australia: Implications for Biological Control

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 969
Author(s):  
Michelle L. Schröder ◽  
Helen F. Nahrung ◽  
Natalia M. de Souza ◽  
Simon A. Lawson ◽  
Bernard Slippers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Egg Parasitoids ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Egg Capsules ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Cryptic Species Complex ◽  
Unidentified Species ◽  
Species Composition And Distribution

Gonipterus species are pests of Eucalyptus plantations worldwide. The egg parasitoid wasp Anaphes nitens is used in many countries for the biological control of Gonipterus spp. Recent taxonomic studies have shown that the three invasive Gonipterus spp., which were previously considered as G. scutellatus, form part of a cryptic species complex. These taxonomic changes have implications for the biological control of Gonipterus spp. The aims of this study were to understand the species composition and distribution of Gonipterus spp. and their egg parasitoids in Australia. Gonipterus spp. adults and egg capsules were collected in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. Adult Gonipterus were identified using morphology and DNA barcoding. Parasitoids were reared from Gonipterus egg capsules and identified. Thirteen Gonipterus species were collected: twelve species were found on the Australian mainland and one species in Tasmania. These included three described species, four previously recognized but undescribed species, two undescribed species and four unidentified species. Five egg parasitoid species that attack Gonipterus spp. were identified. Anaphes nitens, Centrodora damoni and Euderus sp. were identified on the Australian mainland and A. tasmaniae and A. inexpectatus were identified in Tasmania. The results from this study will contribute to the improvement of Gonipterus biological control in the future.

The control of Nezara viridula L. with introduced egg parasitoids in Australia. A review of a 'landmark' example of classical biological control

1990 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1127 ◽  
Author(s):  
AR Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Egg Parasitoids ◽  
Nezara Viridula ◽  
Trissolcus Basalis ◽  
Specific Identification ◽  
History Of ◽  
Material Information

The history of Nezara viridula egg parasitoid introductions into Australia is critically reviewed. Using largely unpublished file material information is presented on the source of parasitoids, specific identification of parasitoids, numbers of parasitoids reared and released, and establishment and effects in the field. At least four species of egg parasitoids, in three genera, have been introduced and liberated into Australia since biological control efforts were first begun in 1933. There are records of 11 introductions involving Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) (Egypt 1933; West Indies 1952-53; South Africa 1980; Brazil 1980; U.S.A. 1979-8 l), Trissolcus mitsukurii (Ashmead) (Japan l962), Ooencyrtus submetallicus (Howard) (West Indies 1952-53), and Telenomus chloropus (Thomson) (Japan 1962; Japan via U.S.A. 1980). Doubt is cast on the specific status of introductions from Italy (1956) and Pakistan (1 961), which are recorded in the literature as T, basalis. Evidence is presented that there is currently not enough information available to determine the specific classifications of these importations. Three programs in which Australian field populations of Trissolcus were bred and released elsewhere in Australia are also recorded. Post-release evaluation of introduced N. viridula egg parasitoids in Australia is reviewed. It is proposed that there is only circumstantial evidence to support the claim that N. viridula is under 'good' biological control by T. basalis in Australia. Areas of investigation that are of the most significance to current workers in N. viridula biological control are highlighted in the discussion.

scholarly journals Psix striaticeps (Dodd) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae): an Old World parasitoid of stink bug eggs arrives in Florida, USA

2021 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 503-521
Author(s):  
Sarah Birkmire ◽  
Cory Penca ◽  
Elijah J. Talamas ◽  
Matthew R. Moore ◽  
Amanda C. Hodges
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Biological Control Agent ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Control Agent ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Stink Bug ◽  
Stink Bugs ◽  
Old World ◽  
Piezodorus Guildinii

Psix striaticeps (Dodd) is an egg-parasitoid wasp previously known only from the Old World. We report this species from twelve counties in Florida, which are the first records in the Western Hemisphere. It was collected in yellow cylinder traps and reared from the eggs of three stink bug species: Nezara viridula L., Chinavia marginata (Palisot de Beauvois), and Piezodorus guildinii (Westwood). A COI barcode analysis found a 100% match between the Floridian population and a specimen from South Africa. The prospects of using Ps. striaticeps as a biological control agent against exotic stink bugs are discussed.

scholarly journals Hyperparasitism of Acroclisoides sinicus (Huang and Liao) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) on Two Biological Control Agents of Halyomorpha halys

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 617
Author(s):  
Alberto Mele ◽  
Davide Scaccini ◽  
Alberto Pozzebon
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Choice Experiments ◽  
Egg Parasitoids ◽  
Halyomorpha Halys ◽  
Biological Control Agents ◽  
Egg Masses ◽  
Exploitation Rate ◽  
The Impact

Halyomorpha halys (Stål) is an invasive Asian pest that causes severe crop losses on various crops. Nowadays, management strategies against this pest mainly rely on pesticide use, but biological control with egg parasitoids is considered the most promising long-term and sustainable solution. Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) and Trissolcus mitsukurii (Ashmead) are Asian egg parasitoids already present in Europe and are the most effective biological control agents of H. halys. Therefore, these two species are considered for biological control programs in Europe and other parts of the world. Acroclisoides sinicus (Huang and Liao) is a pteromalid parasitoid wasp that frequently emerged from H. halys egg masses collected in northern Italy. This species has been hypothesized to be a hyperparasitoid of Trissolcus spp. parasitoids. This study was carried out under laboratory conditions where A. sinicus was tested in no-choice and two-choice experiments to assess the host preference between T. japonicus and T. mitsukurii. Olfactory responses of A. sinicus from volatiles emitted from different potential hosts were also tested. In all trials, A. sinicus showed a clear preference for parasitizing H. halys eggs previously parasitized by T. mitsukurii compared to T. japonicus. In no-choice experiments, the impact of the hyperparasitoid on T. japonicus was low, showing an exploitation rate of 4.0%, while up to a 96.2% exploitation rate was observed on T. mitsukurii. Acroclisoides sinicus was also attracted by volatiles emitted by egg masses parasitized by T. mitsukurii, while no response was observed to egg masses parasitized by T. japonicus or not parasitized. Therefore, according to the results obtained here, A. sinicus could limit the population development of T. mitsukurii, while lesser effects are expected on T. japonicus.

scholarly journals Characteristics of the meconia of European egg parasitoids of Halyomorpha halys

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 187-201
Author(s):  
Giuseppino Sabbatini-Peverieri ◽  
Lucrezia Giovannini ◽  
Claudia Benvenuti ◽  
Luca Madonni ◽  
Kim Hoelmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Adult Emergence ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Egg Parasitoids ◽  
Halyomorpha Halys ◽  
Parasitoid Species ◽  
The Usa

Halyomorpha halys is a severe invasive Asian pest worldwide and classical biological control is foreseen as the most promising control method. Egg parasitoids appear to be the most important natural enemies of this pest, especially the Asian hymenopteran Trissolcus japonicus. In the invaded areas, only a few egg parasitoid species have been able to adopt H. halys as a host. Anastatus bifasciatus is the most common native egg parasitoid of H. halys in Europe, but reaches only low levels of parasitization, while several other native species are only occasionally found. Recently, adventive populations have been found both in the USA and in Europe of T. japonicus, and in Italy of a second Asian species, Trissolcus mitsukurii. Species identification based on morphological traits by specialists or by molecular analysis is a crucial step in the management of biological control programs. The ability to identify the genus or species within a narrow guild of egg parasitoids based on adult emergence holes and meconium features can be a simple and useful method to support management efforts. We present here detailed descriptions of the meconium of the most frequent parasitoid species attacking H. halys in Europe and the characteristics of their emergence holes of the adult wasps.

scholarly journals Trichogramma: an egg parasitoid of crop pests

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omprakash Navik ◽  
Richa Varshney
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Biocontrol Agent ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Egg Parasitoids ◽  
Time Cost ◽  
Crop Pests ◽  
Lepidopteran Pests ◽  
Cost Of Protection

Use of insecticides to manage the emerging pest problems in the different crop being taken by farmers in their field. Today, due to indiscriminate use of insecticide, the agriculture produces getting contaminated and traced in food channel. For the reason, many farmers moving towards organic farming to produce pesticide free foods. In this context, control of emerging pest problem through biological control could be the better alternative. The egg parasitoids, Trichogramma being a major and efficient biocontrol agent for management of major lepidopteran pests in different corps. In India, great diversity of Trichogramma reported, hence, use of these egg parasitoids can cut the insecticidal application and same time cost of protection of farmers.

scholarly journals Selection and evaluation of qPCR reference genes for expression analysis in the tiny egg parasitoid wasp, Trichogramma dendrolimi  Matsumura (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang-xiao Huo ◽  
Xue-ping Bai ◽  
Wu-Nan Che ◽  
Su-fang Ning ◽  
Lin Lv ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Biological Control ◽  
Developmental Stage ◽  
Reference Genes ◽  
Biological Control Agent ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Housekeeping Genes ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Trichogramma Dendrolimi

The egg parasitoid Trichogramma  spp. is an important biological control agent used against multiple species of Lepidopteran pest in forestry and agriculture. Due to the importance of Trichogramma  spp. in biocontrol programs, its biological characteristics have been studied in detail, and current investigations should focus on the molecular biology of these tiny parasitoids. Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) is considered as the standard method for quantifying the gene expression of organisms. Surprisingly, the appropriate reference genes to ensure robust qPCR have not been documented at all for the Trichogramma  genus. This study aimed to identify suitable reference genes for use in qPCR procedure of Trichogramma   dendrolimi . Nine candidate housekeeping genes, namely glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase ( GAPDH ), forkhead box O ( FOXO ), superoxide dismutase ( SOD ), beta-actin ( ACTIN ), ribosomal protein L10a ( RPL10a ), L18 ( RPL18 ), L28 ( RPL28 ), S13 ( RPS13 ), and S15 ( RPS15 ), were tested for their suitability as reference genes for developmental stage (3 rd , 4 th , 5 th , 6 th , 7 th , 8 th , 9 th , and 10 th  day after parasitization), tissue (head, thorax, and abdomen of adults), sex of adults (male and female), and temperature (17?, 25?, and 32?). According to the GeNorm analysis, robust analysis should involve using an appropriate combination of reference genes, namely, at least three genes for different development stages, two genes for different tissues, two genes for different sex, and two genes for different temperature, respectively. According to the RelFinder method and by assessing the integrated values from using the ?Ct method, GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, we identified the developmental stage-specific reference genes SOD , GAPDH , and ACTIN ; tissue-specific reference genes RPL18  and RPS15 ; sex-specific reference genes SOD  and RPL18 ; and temperature-specific reference genes RPL18  and RPL10 . When testing the use of stable vs. unstable reference genes, the substantial differences were observed in the estimation expression of a hypothetical target gene, HSP90 , in response to temperature. The present study provides a robust method for the measurement of gene expression in T. dendrolimi  and will be helpful for future biological control programs using Trichogramma  wasps.

scholarly journals Sexual dimorphism and sex-biased gene expression in an egg parasitoid species, Anastatus disparis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.C. Liu ◽  
DeJun Hao ◽  
Hao-Yuan Hu ◽  
Jian-Rong Wei
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Biological Control ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Expression Of Genes

Abstract BackgroundDifferences in the expression of genes present in both sexes are assumed to contribute to sex differences including behavioural, physiological and morphological dimorphisms. For enriching our knowledge of gender differences in an important egg parasitoid wasp, Anastatus disparis (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), sex-biased differences in gene expression were investigated using Illumina-based transcriptomic analysis. ResultsA total of 15812 resulting unigenes were annotated, and a large set of genes accounting for 50.09% of the total showed sex-biased expression and included 630 sex-specific genes. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses showed that the functional categories associated with sex-biased genes were mainly related to reproduction. In addition, the transcriptome data provided evidence that sex pheromones in A. disparis are produced by the female, and activity of D12-desaturases appear to have been replaced by D9-desaturases playing roles in sex pheromone production. The large set of sex-biased genes identified in this study provide a molecular background for sexually dimorphic traits such as flyability, longevity, and aggression in this species and suggests candidate venom proteins expressed only in females that could be used for biological control.ConclusionsThis study provides comprehensive insight into sexually dimorphic traits of a parasitoid wasp and can inform future research into the molecular mechanisms underlying such traits and the application of parasitoids to the biological control of pest species.

scholarly journals Native and Non-Native Egg Parasitoids Associated with Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys [Stål, 1855]; Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in Western Slovenia

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 505
Author(s):  
Mojca Rot ◽  
Lara Maistrello ◽  
Elena Costi ◽  
Iris Bernardinelli ◽  
Giorgio Malossini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Egg Parasitoids ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Crop Damage ◽  
Invasive Pest ◽  
Halyomorpha Halys ◽  
Stink Bug ◽  
Parasitoid Species ◽  
Parasitism Rates

Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), native to East Asia, has become a globally invasive pest, as a serious threat to agricultural production and a notorious nuisance pest in urban areas. Considerable efforts have been made so far to develop effective pest control measures to prevent crop damage. Biological control of this invasive stink bug by egg parasitoids has proven to be the most environmentally sustainable long-term solution. Knowledge of the native egg parasitoid fauna is of key importance when implementing a biological control program. Therefore, the main objective of our study was to detect egg parasitoid species associated with H. halys in the Goriška region (Western Slovenia) and to evaluate their impact on the pest population under field conditions. In the years 2019 and 2020, around 4600 H. halys eggs were collected in the wild and more than 3400 sentinel eggs were exposed to detect parasitoids in the field. Five egg-parasitoid species emerged from H. halys eggs: Anastatus bifasciatus (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), Telenomus sp., Trissolcus basalis, Trissolcus mitsukurii (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) and Ooencyrtus telenomicida (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), all of them are new records for Slovenia. The native species, An. bifasciatus, dominated in urban and suburban areas, while non-native Tr. mitsukurii prevailed in agricultural areas. Overall parasitism rates of naturally laid eggs by the parasitoid species complex in 2019 and 2020 was 3.0 and 14.4%, respectively. Rapid recruitment of native parasitoids, early detection of an effective alien parasitoid species and increasing overall parasitism rates are very encouraging results, which need to be followed and verified in future research.

scholarly journals Sexual dimorphism and sex-biased gene expression in an egg parasitoid species, Anastatus disparis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.C. Liu ◽  
DeJun Hao ◽  
Hao-Yuan Hu ◽  
Jian-Rong Wei
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Biological Control ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Egg Parasitoid ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Expression Of Genes

Abstract Background: Differences in the expression of genes present in both sexes are assumed to contribute to sex differences including behavioural, physiological and morphological dimorphisms. For enriching our knowledge of gender differences in an important egg parasitoid wasp, Anastatus disparis (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), sex-biased differences in gene expression were investigated using Illumina-based transcriptomic analysis. Results: A total of 15812 resulting unigenes were annotated, and a large set of genes accounting for 50.09% of the total showed sex-biased expression and included 630 sex-specific genes. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses showed that the functional categories associated with sex-biased genes were mainly related to reproduction. In addition, the transcriptome data provided evidence that sex pheromones in A. disparis are produced by the female, and activity of D12-desaturases appear to have been replaced by D9-desaturases playing roles in sex pheromone production. The large set of sex-biased genes identified in this study provide a molecular background for sexually dimorphic traits such as flyability, longevity, and aggression in this species and suggests candidate venom proteins expressed only in females that could be used for biological control.Conclusions: This study provides comprehensive insight into sexually dimorphic traits of a parasitoid wasp and can inform future research into the molecular mechanisms underlying such traits and the application of parasitoids to the biological control of pest species.

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