scholarly journals Population Monitoring, Egg Parasitoids, and Genetic Structure of the Invasive Litchi Stink Bug, Tessaratoma papillosa in Taiwan

Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 690
Author(s):  
Yi-Hui Wu ◽  
Matthew T. Kamiyama ◽  
Chuan-Cheng Chung ◽  
Hsy-Yu Tzeng ◽  
Chia-Hung Hsieh ◽  
...  

Here we assessed population dynamics, natural enemy fauna (with emphasis on egg parasitoid), and population genetic structure (based on mitochondrial DNA) of the invasive litchi stink bug (LSB), Tessaratoma papillosa in Taiwan. Our major findings include: (1) fluctuations of LSB in numbers of adults, mating pairs, and egg masses over a 2-year period in Taiwan generally resemble those in the native populations; (2) Anastatusdexingensis and A. fulloi are among the most dominant LSB egg parasitoids, with the former consistently outnumbering the latter throughout Taiwan; (3) the presence of two genetically distinct clades suggests LSB in Taiwan most likely derived from multiple invasions. All these data practically improve our understanding of this invasive insect pest, particularly its ecological and genetic characteristics in the introduced area, which represents critical baseline information for the design of future integrated pest management strategies.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mokhtar Abdulsattar Arif ◽  
Tuğcan Alınç ◽  
Salvatore Guarino ◽  
Stefano Colazza ◽  
Antonino Cusumano ◽  
...  

Egg parasitoids foraging for suitable hosts scattered in the environment rely mainly on chemical cues. Elucidating the chemical ecology of natural enemies is important in the development of effective and successful strategies for conservation biological control. In this context, the host cuticular hydrocarbons, which are exploited by several species of egg parasitoids as contact kairomones, could be used to retain them by providing information about the presence and the sex of adults of the target species: sex is important because only females of the host species lay the eggs that can be subsequently utilized for parasitoid reproduction. However, the chemical basis of host sex discrimination in egg parasitoids is not well understood. We carried out behavioral and chemical bioassays to investigate the role played by contact chemical cues left by adults of the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys Stål, in host egg searching behavior and adult host sex discrimination by the egg parasitoid Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead). A first set of bioassays showed that parasitoids spent more time exploring patches contaminated with chemicals associated with adult H. halys females compared with adult males. Similar responses were displayed by T. japonicus when hexane extracts of H. halys were tested suggesting that non-polar chemical compounds are involved in host sex discrimination. GC-MS analysis of hexane extracts revealed quantitative differences in the cuticular compounds of the two sexes, with 1-hexadecene (more abundant in males) being the most important component in determining these differences. Hexane extracts of H. halys females blended with synthetic 1-hexadecene significantly reduced the wasps’ arrestment responses compared to crude extracts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juncong Yan ◽  
Gábor Vétek ◽  
Chandan Pal ◽  
Jinping Zhang ◽  
Rania Gmati ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundBrown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is native to East Asia but has invaded many countries in the world. It is a polyphagous insect pest and causing significant economic losses to agriculture worldwide. Knowledge on the genetic diversity among BMSB populations is scarce but is essential to understand the patterns of colonization and invasion history of local populations. Efforts have been made to assess the genetic diversity of BMSB using partial mitochondrial DNA sequences but genetic divergence on mitochondria is not high enough to precisely identify and distinguish various BMSB populations. Therefore, in this study, we applied a ddRAD (double digest restriction-site associated DNA) sequencing approach to ascertain the genetic diversity of BMSB populations collected from 12 countries (2 native and 10 invaded) across four continents with the ultimate aim to trace the origin of BMSBs intercepted during border inspections and post-border surveillance.ResultA total of 1775 high confidence single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified from ddRAD sequencing data collected from 389 BMSB individuals. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the identified SNPs indicated the existence of two main distinct genetic clusters representing individuals sampled from regions where BMSB is native to, China and Japan, respectively, and one broad cluster comprised individuals sampled from countries which have been invaded by BMSB. The population genetic structure analysis further discriminated the genetic diversity among the BMSB populations at a higher resolution and distinguished them into five potential genetic clusters. ConclusionThe study revealed hidden genetic diversity among the studied BMSB populations across the continents. The BMSB populations from Japan were genetically distant from the other studied populations. Similarly, the BMSB populations from China were also separated from the Japanese and other populations. Further genetic structure analysis revealed the presence of at least three genetic clusters of BMSB in the invaded countries, possibly originating from multiple invasions. Furthermore, this study has produced novel set of SNP markers to enhance knowledge of genetic diversity among BMSB populations and demonstrate a great potential to trace the origin of BMSB individuals for future invasion events.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 258
Author(s):  
Hillary M. Peterson ◽  
Elijah Talamas ◽  
Grzegorz Krawczyk

The samurai wasp, Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), is an egg parasitoid associated with the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). Trissolcus japonicus is a candidate for classical biological control of H. halys populations. Since 2014, adventive populations of T. japonicus have been detected in 14 US states, in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, and in two European countries, Switzerland and Italy. Establishing baseline information about populations of T. japonicus is important, as this species is not host specific to H. halys and the potential ecological effects of the accidental introductions are not fully known. In this study, yellow sticky cards were deployed at commercial fruit orchards in nine counties in Pennsylvania separated by more than 400 km. Trissolcus japonicus was detected on cards in eight counties, and in two habitats, in the orchard and at the forest border. Other native species of Scelionidae known to attack the eggs of H. halys were also identified, including Trissolcus euschisti (Ashmead), Trissolcus brochymenae (Ashmead), and Telenomus podisi Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae). These results are important baseline ecological knowledge for both T. japonicus, which appears to be established in orchards throughout Pennsylvania, and other native Scelionidae.


2021 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 291-308
Author(s):  
Fateme Ranjbar ◽  
M. Amin Jalali ◽  
Mahdi Ziaaddini ◽  
Zahra Gholamalizade ◽  
Elijah J. Talamas

Surveys for egg-parasitoid wasps were conducted in Rafsanjan, Iran, on two species of Pentatomidae (Hemiptera) found in pistachio orchards, Acrosternum arabicum Wagner and Brachynema signatum Jakovlev. Five species of Scelionidae (Platygastroidea) were recovered, including one that is here described as new: Psix saccharicola (Mani), Trissolcus colemani (Crawford), T. darreh Talamas sp. nov., T. perepelovi (Kozlov), and T. semistriatus (Nees). In addition to describing a new species, we report new host associations, provide COI barcodes for four of these species, and discuss host-related intraspecific variation in T. darreh and T. perepelovi.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 505
Author(s):  
Mojca Rot ◽  
Lara Maistrello ◽  
Elena Costi ◽  
Iris Bernardinelli ◽  
Giorgio Malossini ◽  
...  

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.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Aline Moreira Dias ◽  
Miguel Borges ◽  
Maria Carolina Blassioli Moraes ◽  
Matheus Lorran Figueira Coelho ◽  
Andrej Čokl ◽  
...  

Stink bugs are major pests in diverse crops around the world. Pest management strategies based on insect behavioral manipulation could help to develop biorational management strategies of stink bugs. Insect mating disruption using vibratory signals is an approach with high potential for pest management. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of conspecific female rival signals on the mating behavior and copulation of three stink bug species to establish their potential for mating disruption. Previously recorded female rival signals were played back to bean plants where pairs of the Neotropical brown stink bug, Euschistus heros, and two green stink bugs, Chinavia ubica and Chinavia impicticornis were placed. Vibratory communication and mating behavior were recorded for each pair throughout the experimental time (20 min). Female rival signals show a disrupting effect on the reproductive behavior of three conspecific investigated stink bug species. This effect was more clearly expressed in E. heros and C. ubica than in C. impicticornis. The likelihood of copulating in pairs placed on control plants, without rival signals, increased 29.41 times in E. heros, 4.6 times in C. ubica and 1.71 times in C. impicticornis. However, in the last case, the effect of female rivalry signals in copulation was not significant. The effect of mating disruption of female rival signals of the three stink bug species may originate from the observed reduction in specific vibratory communication signals emitted, which influences the duet formation and further development of different phases of mating behavior. Our results suggest that female rival signals have potential for application in manipulation and disruption of mating behavior of stink bugs. Further work needs to focus on the effects of female rival signals used in long duration experiments and also their interactions with chemical communication of stink bugs.


Author(s):  
Lu-Lu Li ◽  
Ji-Wei Xu ◽  
Wei-Chen Yao ◽  
Hui-Hui Yang ◽  
Youssef Dewer ◽  
...  

Abstract The tobacco cutworm Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous pest with a highly selective and sensitive chemosensory system involved in complex physiological behaviors such as searching for food sources, feeding, courtship, and oviposition. However, effective management strategies for controlling the insect pest populations under threshold levels are lacking. Therefore, there is an urgent need to formulate eco-friendly pest control strategies based on the disruption of the insect chemosensory system. In this study, we identified 158 putative chemosensory genes based on transcriptomic and genomic data for S. litura, including 45 odorant-binding proteins (OBPs, nine were new), 23 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), 60 odorant receptors (ORs, three were new), and 30 gustatory receptors (GRs, three were new), a number higher than those reported by previous transcriptome studies. Subsequently, we constructed phylogenetic trees based on these genes in moths and analyzed the dynamic expression of various genes in head capsules across larval instars using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Nine genes–SlitOBP8, SlitOBP9, SlitOBP25, SlitCSP1, SlitCSP7, SlitCSP18, SlitOR34, SlitGR240, and SlitGR242–were highly expressed in the heads of 3- to 5-day-old S. litura larvae. The genes differentially expressed in olfactory organs during larval development might play crucial roles in the chemosensory system of S. litura larvae. Our findings substantially expand the gene inventory for S. litura and present potential target genes for further studies on larval feeding in S. litura.


Sociobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 5813
Author(s):  
Matan Shelomi ◽  
Bo-Jun Qiu ◽  
Lin-Ting Huang

An accumulation of questionable scientific reports on the use of natural plant extracts to control household pest insects, using biologically irrelevant experimental designs and extremely high concentrations, has resulted in a publication bias: “promising” studies claiming readily available plants can repel various insects, including social insects, despite no usable data to judge cost-effectiveness or sustainability in a realistic situation. The Internet provides a further torrent of untested claims, generating a background noise of misinformation. An example is the belief that cucumbers are “natural” ant repellent, widely reported in such informal literature, despite no direct evidence for or against this claim. We tested this popular assertion using peel extracts of cucumber and the related bitter melon as olfactory and gustatory repellents against ants. Extracts of both fruit peels in water, methanol, or hexane were statistically significant but effectively weak gustatory repellents. Aqueous cucumber peel extract has a significant but mild olfactory repellent effect: about half of the ants were repelled relative to none in a control. While the myth may have a grain of truth to it, as cucumber does have a mild but detectable effect on ants in an artificial setup, its potential impact on keeping ants out of a treated perimeter would be extremely short-lived and not cost-effective. Superior ant management strategies are currently available. The promotion of “natural” products must be rooted in scientific evidence of a successful and cost-effective implementation prospect.


Plant Disease ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 103 (6) ◽  
pp. 1189-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Opoku ◽  
Nathan M. Kleczewski ◽  
Kelly A. Hamby ◽  
D. Ames Herbert ◽  
Sean Malone ◽  
...  

Brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys Stål) is an invasive agricultural pest that causes severe damage to many crops. To determine potential associations between H. halys feeding damage, Fusarium infection, and mycotoxin contamination in field corn, a field survey was conducted in eight counties in Virginia. Results indicated an association between H. halys feeding damage and fumonisin contamination. Subsequent field experiments in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia examined the ability of H. halys to increase Fusarium verticillioides (Sacc.) Nirenberg infection and fumonisin concentrations in corn. At the milk stage, H. halys (0 or 4 adults) and Fusarium (with or without F. verticillioides inoculum) treatments were applied to bagged ears in a two by two factorial randomized complete block design with 12 replicates. H. halys treatments increased levels of feeding damage (P < 0.0001) and Fusarium infection (P = 0.0380). Interaction between H. halys and Fusarium treatments influenced severity of infection (P = 0.0018) and fumonisin concentrations (P = 0.0360). Results suggest H. halys has the ability to increase both Fusarium infection and fumonisin concentrations in field corn. Further studies are needed to understand mechanisms by which H. halys increases fumonisin and to develop management strategies to mitigate impacts of H. halys on field corn in the region.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1994-2003
Author(s):  
Hemant Sharma ◽  
Maha Singh Jaglan ◽  
S. S. Yadav

Biology of pink stem borer, Sesamia inferens (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was conducted during 2015-16 in laboratories of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Karnal on HQPM 1 (hybrid) and HKI 1128 (inbred) for two generations at room temperature. Results on biology of S. inferens in the first generation revealed that incubation period varied from 10-14 days on HQPM 1 and 11-15 days on HKI 1128. The larval duration lasted for 21-37 days on HQPM 1 and 24-39 days on HKI 1128. The adult longevity of male and female ranged from 6-7 days and 7-8 days on HQPM 1 and 5-7 days and 6-7 days on HKI 1128, respectively. The total life span ranged from 63-72 days for female and 45-58 days for male on HQPM 1 and 65-74 days for female and 49-62 days for male on HKI 1128, respectively in the first generation. The total life span in second generation ranged 94-107 days for female and 83-96 days for male on HQPM 1 and 98-112 days for female and 86-101 days for male on HKI 1128. The biology of an insect pest is a condition precedent to find out its management strategies. The biology of S. inferens on maize has not yet been studied in north western part of the country. Having regards to the fact that no systematic work on this aspect has been carried out, studies were conducted on biology of this pest for developing efficient pest management strategies.


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