Biological control of aphids can be achieved with parasitoids. A parasitoid is a wasp able to parasitize aphids in a host-specific way. These natural enemies of aphids are used in organic or integrated pest management strategies. In order to apply the matching parasitoid against a given aphid species, the aphid has to be detected in the crop and subsequently identified. By the time the aphids a...

Generalist predators and parasitoids are considered to be important regulators of aphids. The former not only feed on these pests, but might also consume parasitoids at all stages of development. This direct or coincidental interference affects the natural control of aphids, the scale of which is largely unknown, and it has rarely been examined under natural conditions. Here, molecular diagnost...

Complex biotic interactions shape ecological communities of plants, herbivores and their natural enemies. In studies of multi-trophic interactions, the presence of small, invisible micro-organisms associated with plants and those of a fourth above-ground trophic level have often been neglected. Incorporating these neglected factors improves our understanding of the processes within a multi-trop...

The present research was carried out to study the trophic relationship between aphids and their primary parasitoids in Pothwar, Pakistan during 2009-2010 in the districts of Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, and Jhelum. Ten species of aphids were recorded from 17 host plants. The aphids were parasitized by 11 species of primary parasitoids. Five quantitative aphid-parasitoid food webs were construct...

Heritable bacterial endosymbionts play an important role in aphid ecology. Sequence-based evidence suggests that facultative symbionts such as Hamiltonella defensa or Regiella insecticola also undergo horizontal transmission. Other than through male-to-female transfer during the sexual generation in autumn, the routes by which this occurs remain largely unknown. Here, we tested if parasitoids o...

population dynamics of three main alfalfa aphids, namely: pea aphid, acyrthosiphon pisum (harris), spotted alfalfa aphid, therioaphis trifolii forma maculata (buckton), black alfalfa aphid, aphis craccivora koch, and their most abundant predators and parasitoids in three sites and in two subsequent years in isfahan, iran, were investigated. the results revealed that frequency and temporal occur...

The brown citrus aphid, Toxoptera citricida (Kirkaldy), is an important pest of Florida citriculture because it causes feeding damage to citrus and vectors citrus tristeza virus. Parasitoids recovered from brown citrus aphids in Florida include Lysiphlebus testaceipes (Cresson), Lipolexis scutellaris Mackauer, and Aphelinus gossypii Timberlake. Monitoring the levels of parasitism caused byeach ...

Most parasitoids of aphids are small wasps belonging to the families Braconidae or Aphelinidae. However, some dipteran parasitoids are also known to use aphids as hosts. We describe and give life-history information on a new species of aphid parasitoid, Endaphis fugitiva Gagné and Muratori, found to parasitize the banana aphid, Pentalonia nigronervosa Coquerel, the vector of banana bunchy top v...

While the ecological consequences of plant diversity have received much attention, the mechanisms by which intraspecific diversity affects associated communities remains understudied. We report on a field experiment documenting the effects of patch diversity in the plant Baccharis salicifolia (genotypic monocultures versus polycultures of four genotypes), ants (presence versus absence) and thei...