Eretmocerus eremicus is the most abundant parasitoid of the Bemisia complex in North America. It can parasitize equally successfully the most common whiteflies in greenhouses, Trialeurodes vaporariorum and the Bemisia complex. The parasitoid is used in Europe for whitefly control, either alone or in combination with releases of Encarsia formosa. Life-cycle and demographic parameters of this par...

Soybean aphid is an economic pest of soybean in North America. Currently, management of soybean aphid is achieved through the use of foliar- and seed-applied insecticides. However, natural enemies play an important role in regulating soybean aphid populations, and may be adversely affected by insecticides. The effects of imidacloprid and thiamethoxam seed treatments on the soybean aphid parasit...

Abstract To improve exclusion systems for fruit trees, insect nets of various types were evaluated their permeability to different beneficial and pest species, under laboratory field conditions. Pests studied the apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii Drosophilidae). Beneficials Aphidoletes aphidimyza Cecidomyiidae), Aphidius matric...

In haplodiploid organisms, unmated or sperm depleted females are "constrained" to produce only male progeny. If such constrained females reproduce, the population sex ratio will shift toward males and unconstrained females will be selected to produce more females. Assuming that a female's own time spent constrained is an index of the population-wide level of constrained oviposition, and that co...

The augmentative releases of mass-reared Aphytis spp. (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) parasitoids are widely used against armored scales. The nutritional status and the initial egg load of Aphytis spp. females are key to their success as biological control agents. For these reasons, this work focuses on the study of providing a protein feed to Aphytis lingnanensis (Compere) and A. melinus DeBach to ...