Fossil Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Baltic amber

Seven subfamilies of Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae), Banchinae, Cryptinae, Orthocentrinae, Pherhombinae, Stilbopinae, Townesitinae and Tryphoninae in Baltic amber are reviewed. Two species, Rovenosa alexrasnitsyni Manukyan, sp. nov. and R. khalaimi Manukyan, sp. nov. (Stilbopinae) are described as new to science. The male of Rovenosa rasnitsyni Khalaim, 2011 is recorded and described for the first time. The discovery of the puparium of an aphidophagous syrphid fly (Diptera: Syrphidae) with an emergence hole characteristic for Diplazontinae is the first fossil evidence of the subfamily. The strong bias in composition of the Ichneumonidae fauna in Baltic amber is noted. The presence of certain taxa in amber is suggested to be primarily due to specific properties of the pine resin, and only secondarily due to their occurrence in the “amber” forest.

Synthetic Insecticides and Bio-pesticide Affect Natural Enemies of Aphid (Lipaphis erysimi Kalt) in Mustard

Background: The prime intention of this research work was to assess the effect of synthetic insecticides and bio-pesticide against natural enemies of aphid, Lipaphis erysimi (Kalt.), mainly ladybird beetle Coccinella septumpunctata (Linnaeus) and syrphid fly, Ischiodon scutellaris (Fabricius) in mustard was evaluated. Methods: The field experiment was conducted at Student Research Farm, Department of Entomology, CSAUA and T Kanpur during Rabi season of 2013-14 and 2014-15. Experiment conducted in Randomized block design with three replication and eight treatments. Imidacloprid, deltamethrin, spinosad, fipronil, thiamethoxam, Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana were tested against natural enemies and available population of natural enemies of aphid were recorded before 1 day and after 3, 5, 7 and 14 days of spray application. M. anisopliae and B. bassiana were the most effective with less toxicity against Ladybird beetle and syrphid fly by continuously increasing population after application. Though all the tested chemical insecticides were found toxic to the lady bird beetle and syrphid fly larvae, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam were found relatively safer to other insecticides by recording less mortality after 14 days of spraying during two years testing period. Result: M. anisopliae, B. bassiana, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam may be used for the management of insect pests because of their less toxicity to beneficial insects.

Insects identified by unqualified scientists: multiple “new” records from the Murmansk oblast of Russia are dismissed as false

A recently published book authored by six botanists (Rak NS, Goncharova OA, Poloskova EY, Litvinova SV, Zotova OE, Lipponen IN. 2018. Bioecological analysis of introducents of the family Rosaceae Juss. Kola Science Centre, Apatity, 87 pp.) reports information on 19 species of insects that are declared to damage woody Rosaceae plants in the central part of the Murmansk oblast of Russia. Examination of photographs published in this book revealed that 15 of these 19 species were identified incorrectly and that several of the illustrated species are unlikely to damage woody Rosaceae plants. The most striking examples are errors in determination at the order level: a syrphid fly (Diptera) identified as a leafcutter bee (Hymenoptera), and a sawfly (Hymenoptera) identified as a psyllid (Hemiptera). I provide correct identifications of the insects illustrated in the cited book in order to prevent the spread of erroneous information across future publications and databases.

Comparison of Feeding Ability between Ischiodon scutellaris (Diptera: Syrphidae) and Menochilus sexmaculatus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on Aphis craccivora (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Study on the feeding ability of two predators of Aphis craccivora (Koch), i.e. larvae of syrphid fly, Ischiodon scutellaris and coccinellid beetle, Menochilus sexmaculatus has been done in the laboratory. The study was conducted to determine the impacts of prey densities on larval development time, and the survival rate of larval stage. The results showed that M. sexmaculatus larvae required more prey than I. scutellaris in the 1st instar, but I. scutellaris ate more prey than M. sexmaculatus in the 3rd instar. Furthermore, addition of prey number shortened significanly the development time of the larvae stage, almost all of 1st and 3rd instars M. sexmaculatus and I. scutellaris were able to develop into pupae, whereas, only 45% out of total 1st instar provided with 20 prey individuals succeed to pupate. The impact of the number of prey on the biology of aphidophaga in relation to their role as controlling aphid in nature is discussed in this paper. IntisariKajian tentang kemampuan makan dua predator Aphis craccivora (Koch), yaitu larva lalat syrphid, Ischiodon scutellaris dan kumbang koksi, Menochilus sexmaculatus telah dilakukan di laboratorium. Kajian juga dilakukan untuk memahami dampak jumlah mangsa pada lama perkembangan larva menjadi pupa dan keloloshidupan larva menjadi pupa. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa larva M. sexmaculatus membutuhkan lebih banyak mangsa daripada I. scutellaris pada instar 1, namun I. scutellaris makan lebih banyak mangsa daripada M. sexmaculatus pada instar 3. Hasil penelitian juga menunjukkan bahwa penambahan mangsa mempercepat waktu perkembangan larva secara signifikan. Semua larva instar 1 dan 3 M. sexmaculatus dan I. scutellaris mampu lolos menjadi pupa, kecuali larva instar 1 M. sexmaculatus yang hanya mampu lolos menjadi pupa sebanyak 45% jika diberi mangsa 20 ekor. Dampak jumlah mangsa pada biologi afidofaga dalam kaitannya dengan peran mereka sebagai pengendali populasi kutu afid di alam dibahas dalam tulisan ini.