Clonal diversity in asexual populations may be maintained if different clones are favoured under different environmental conditions. For aphids, parasitoids are an important variable of the biotic environment. To test whether parasitoids can mediate selection among host clones, we used experimental populations consisting of 10 clones of the peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae, and allowed them t...

Aphids are major pests of cereal crops and a suite of hymenopteran primary parasitoids play an important role in regulating their populations. However, hyperparasitoids may disrupt the biocontrol services provided by primary parasitoids. As such, understanding cereal aphid-primary parasitoid-hyperparasitoid interactions is vital for a reliable parasitoid-based control of cereal aphids. For this...

the grain aphid, sitobion avenae (hemiptera: aphididae) is one of the injuriously important pests of wheat and praon volucre (hymenoptera: braconidae) is one of its major parasitoids in iran. in this research, thermal requirements of the grain aphid and its parasitoid were evaluated at six constant temperatures (10, 15, 20, 25, 27.5 and 30 °c), 60 ± 5 % relative humidity and a photoperiodicity ...

There is growing interest in biological control as a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to control pest insects. Aphids are among the most detrimental agricultural pests worldwide, and parasitoid wasps are frequently employed for their control. The use of asexual parasitoids may improve the effectiveness of biological control because only females kill hosts and because asexual populat...

In a natural community of 49 species (12 species of aphids and 37 species of their parasitoids), body lengths of 2,151 parasitoid individuals were, to an excellent approximation, related to the body lengths of their individual aphid hosts by a power law with an exponent close to 3/4. Two alternative models predict this exponent. One is based on surface area to volume relationships. The other is...

we studied the pest and parasitoid fauna of cauliflower fields in southern tehran in 2011. in the course of our research the ichneumonid wasp barichneumon derogator (wesmael) of the subfamily ichneumoninae was collected and identified. this parasitoid attacks the larval stages of lepidopteran pests. the species b. derogator is newly recorded from iran.

Two strains of Drosophila melanogaster (resistant and susceptible) were parasitized by a virulent or avirulent strain of the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina boulardi. The success of encapsulation depends on both the genetic status of the host strain and the genetic status of the parasitoid strain: the immune cellular reaction (capsule) is observed only with the resistant strain-avirulent strain com...

woolly poplar aphid, phloeomyzus passerinii (signoret), is considered as an important and serious pest of poplar in iran and many countries. during 2002-2003, resistance and susceptibility of 12 poplar clones to p. passerinii were evaluated in hamedan province of iran. number of formed aphid colonies found in a surface unit was counted three times during a growing season. the clones populus alb...

Parasitoid wasps of the order Hymenoptera, the most diverse groups of animals, are important natural enemies of arthropod hosts in natural ecosystems and can be used in biological control. To date, only one neuropeptidome of a parasitoid wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, has been identified. This study aimed to identify more neuropeptides of parasitoid wasps, by using a well-established workflow that ...