We investigated the potential impact of three opiine tephritid fruit fly parasitoids: Fopius arisanus (Sonan), Fopius caudatus (Szépligeti) and Fopius ceratitivorus Wharton, on the non-target native Hawaiian tephritid, Trupanea dubautiae (Bryan), infesting flowerheads of the endemic Asteraceae shrub Dubautia raillardioides Hillebrand. The three species are the only known opiine fruit fly parasi...

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...

Literature studies in North America (US and Canada), Europe, and Asia (particularly Russia, China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula) were reviewed to identify parasitoid guilds associated with Agrilus woodborers. There are at least 12 species of hymenopteran parasitoids attacking eggs of Agrilus beetles and 56 species (36 genera), attacking Agrilus larvae infesting various host plants in North A...

Chemical compounds (infochemicals or semiochemicals) play an important role both in intra-specific and inter-specific communication. For example, chemical cues appear to play a key role in the host selection process adopted by insect parasitoids. In recent years significant advances have been made in order to understand the chemical ecology of insect parasitoids. However, little information is ...

Overview: The Parasitic Hymenoptera is a diverse and extremely important insect group. Known also as parasitoid wasps, these insects are natural enemies of a broad range of arthropods of medical, veterinary and agricultural significance. Adult parasitoids are free-living insects that lay their eggs in or on various life stages of other arthropods (e.g. insects, ticks, mites), subsequently killi...

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...

Ascoviruses are insect-specific large DNA viruses that mainly infect noctuid larvae, and are transmitted by parasitoids in the fields. Heliothis virescens ascovirus 3h (HvAV-3h) has been recently isolated from Spodoptera exigua, without parasitoid vector identified previously. Here we report that Microplitis similis, a solitary endoparasitoid wasp, could transmit HvAV-3h between S. exigua larva...

Species of the genus Foenobethylus Kieffer, 1913 are parasitoids wasps rarely collected and only found in Oriental region. In this study, based on both morphological molecular evidence, we describe three new species from China: F. robusta Li & Chen, sp. nov. , xinglongsensis Wang yunkaishanensis Chen Luo, An updated key to is provided. Additionally, phylogenetic relationships between ot...

A quantitative catalogue of the parasitoids (almost exclusively Chalcidoidea) and inquiline Cynipidae recorded in the western Palaearctic from galls induced on Quercus by Cynipidae (Cynipini) is presented. Quantitative and national data are included with bibliographic references to almost all records published in 2011 and earlier. The catalogue is followed by two checklists, firstly one of the ...