View on Scopus Three genera are recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia: Alaptus Westwood, Anagrus Haliday, and Polynema Haliday. A new species, Erythmelus (Erythmelus) irba sp. nov. Zeya & Anwar ...& Ahmad is described. Four known species are recorded for the first time: Erythmelus (E.) flavovarius (Walker), Erythmelus (Parallelaptera) rex (Girault), Polynema (Polynema) brevicarinae Annecke & Doutt and Stephanodes reduvioli (Perkins).
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The taxonomy of a newly recorded genus of parasitoid fly from Taiwan, Admontia quwi sp. nov. is described. Diagnostic characteristics and variations of the male post abdomen are ...illustrated. A key to the eight Oriental species of Admontia is provided.
www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4B148B4B-A132-4B85-8BFE-A6FB1129EE98.
1. The value of protective mutualisms provided by some facultative endosymbionts has been well demonstrated in the laboratory, yet only recently has their effectiveness in the field been studied. ‘
C
...andidatus
H
amiltonella defensa’ is known to defend aphids from parasitoid wasps in laboratory trials. However, the efficacy of this defence varies among parasitoids, suggesting that protection will vary spatially and temporally depending on parasitoid community composition.
2. This demonstrated specificity and a dearth of studies on
H
amiltonella
in the field prompted the authors to quantify parasitism rates of
H
amiltonella‐
infected and ‐uninfected
A
phis craccivora
K
och aphid colonies in a manipulative field study.
3. It was found that
A
. craccivora
in central
K
entucky alfalfa were parasitised by
L
ysiphlebus testaceipes
(
C
resson) and
A
phelinus
sp.
S
urprisingly,
H
amiltonella
infection did not lower successful parasitism by the naturally occurring parasitoid wasps. Whether
H
amiltonella
was effective against
L
.
testaceipes
was subsequently tested in a controlled laboratory assay, and no effect on parasitism rate was found.
4. This study emphasises the fact that defensive symbionts sometimes provide no tangible defensive benefits under field conditions, depending on parasitoid community composition. It is hypothesised that the protective mutualism may be beneficial in geographically localised areas. When the symbiosis is effective against a local parasitoid community, aphid clones may experience eruptive population growth and rapidly disperse across a large area, allowing spread to habitats with different parasitoid communities where the mutualism is an ineffective defence.
One new species of the genus Conostigmus Dahlbom, 1858, Conostigmus xui Cui and Wang sp. nov., from China is described. A key to the known species of Conostigmus from China is provided.
Alterative nutritional foods consumed by adult parasitoids play an important role in their fitness and ability to control pests because of food scarcity in many crops. While adult parasitoids feed on ...various sugars, they vary in their nutritional value for parasitoids. We assessed the effects of seven sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose, trehalose, maltose, melezitose, and sorbitol) on the longevity, parasitism ability, parasitism behavior, and flight ability of
, an important parasitoid of cotton aphids. We found that access to glucose, sucrose, or fructose, increased
adult longevity more than the other sugars offered. All sugars except trehalose increased the parasitism rate to more than 50% compared to the starved control (only provided with water). We then compared parasitoid behaviors of wasps fed glucose, sucrose, or fructose to that of the starved control (with access only to water) and found that those fed
spent more time either examining or attacking aphids than parasitoids in the control group, which spent more time walking or resting. Also, consumption of glucose, sucrose, or fructose also significantly improved the flight ability (the total flight distance, flight time, and average flight speed) of
.
Field experiments that examine the impact of immigration, emigration, or landscape structure (e.g., the composition of the matrix) on the source—sink dynamics of fragmented populations are scarce. ...Here, planthoppers (Prokelisia crocea) and egg parasitoids (Anagrus columbi) were released among host-plant patches that varied in structural (caged, isolated, or in a network of other patches) and functional (mudflat matrix that impedes dispersal vs. brome-grass matrix that facilitates dispersal) connectivity. Planthoppers and parasitoids on caged patches exhibited density-dependent growth rates, achieved high equilibrium densities, and rarely went extinct. Therefore, experimental cordgrass patches were classified as population sources. Because access to immigrants did not result in elevated population densities, source populations were not also pseudosinks, i.e., patches whose densities occur above carrying capacity due to high immigration. Planthoppers and parasitoids in open patches in mudflat had dynamics similar to those in caged patches, but went extinct in 4—5 generations in open patches in brome. Brome-embedded patches leaked emigrants at a rate that exceeded the gains from reproduction and immigration; populations of this sort are known as population sieves. For species whose suitable patches are becoming smaller and more isolated as a result of increased habitat fragmentation, emigration losses are likely to become paramount, a condition favoring the formation of population sieves. An increase in the proportion of patches that are sieves is predicted to destabilize regional population dynamics.
Egg parasitoids of the exotic invasive brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), were investigated using lab-reared fresh (live) and frozen (killed) lab-reared sentinel egg masses ...deployed for 72h on foliage in three habitats-woods, orchard, and soybean field-in Maryland, USA, in summer 2014. Four native hymenopteran species, Telenomus podisi Ashmead (Scelionidae), Trissolcus euschisti (Ashmead) and Tr. brochymenae Ashmead (Scelionidae), and Anastatus reduvii (Howard) (Eupelmidae), developed and emerged from H. halys eggs. One exotic parasitoid, Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead), emerged, providing the first known occurrence of this species in North America. Native parasitoids emerged from frozen eggs significantly more often than from fresh eggs (89.3% of egg masses and 98.1% of individual eggs), whereas the exotic Tr. japonicus did not show a similar difference, strongly suggesting adaptation to H. halys as a host by Tr. japonicus but not by the native species. Parasitoids were habitat-specific: all three Trissolcus species were significantly more likely to occur in the woods habitat, whereas Te. podisi was found exclusively in the soybean field. Further investigations are required to elucidate evolving host-parasitoid relationships, habitat specificity, and non-target effects of Tr. japonicus over the expanded range of H. halys in North America.
A comprehensive and precise evaluation of Arthropoda diversity in agricultural landscapes can enhance biological pest control strategies. We used Malaise traps and sweep nets to collect insects from ...three double-cropping paddy fields. DNA was extracted from the ethanol preservative of the Malaise traps and from tissue samples of selected parasitoid wasps. This was followed by amplification using DNA barcoding primers to prepare high-throughput sequencing libraries. We annotated a total of 4956 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), encompassing 174 genera and 32 families of parasitoid wasps. The ethanol filter method efficiently captured a wide range of information. However, the method has low resolution and may result in a reduced estimate of species abundance. Additional insect species were also identified in the parasitoid samples. This suggests that high throughput sequencing from adult parasitoid wasps can also detect host species, enabling a better understanding of host species and providing insights into food webs.
Tritrophic interactions play a pivotal role in maintaining a functional agroecosystem. After damaged by phytophagous insects, host plants release a blend of odorants called herbivore-induced plant ...volatiles (HIPVs) that are attractive to natural enemies including arthropod predators and, in particular, parasitoids. In the last three decades, the identities of HIPVs have been meticulously characterized in a variety of tritrophic systems by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. A plethora of HIPV components have been physiologically screened by gas chromatography-electroantennogram detection (GC-EAD) and single sensillum recording (SSR). The effects of induced odorants on behavior of herbivores and parasitoids have been investigated using Y-tube olfactometer assays and wind tunnels in the laboratory and bait trap tests in the field. Given the potential utility of parasitic wasps for pest control, the understanding of olfactory mechanisms of how HIPVs are detected by herbivores and parasitic wasps could facilitate the exploitation of parasitoids as bio-control agents. As the advent of the genome sequencing and transcriptome analysis, a large repertoire of chemosensory protein genes including odorant receptors and odorant binding proteins has been identified in herbivores and parasitic wasps, providing an unprecedented opportunity to debunk the molecular basis of olfaction-based interactions. In this review, we will summarize the recent progresses in characterization of HIPVs, the studies of olfactory mechanisms underlying tritrophic interactions with a focus on parasitoids, Lepidopteran pests, and related host plants.
Riptortus pedestris
(Fab.) (Hemiptera, Alydidae) is one of the most damaging insects of leguminous crops in Eastern Asia but has only recently emerged as a pest in Bangladesh. Eggs, nymphs and adults ...of
R. pedestris
are here reported from mung bean (
Vigna radiata
(L.)) fields in Bangladesh. Two parasitoid species were reared from field-collected eggs of
R. pedestris
, the solitary
Hadronotus pubescens
(Motschoulsky) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae) and a gregarious species of
Ooencyrtus
Ashmead (Hymenoptera, Encyrtidae). Here we redescribe
H. pubescens
, treat
H. hogenakalensis
(Sharma) as a junior synonym, and report aspects of its biology that were investigated under laboratory conditions. The number of eggs parasitized by
H. pubescens
was constant with eggs up to 48 hours in age, decreasing by 14% for 96 hour-old eggs. As host egg age increased, the parasitoid mean development time increased and the longevity of the parasitoids decreased.
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