Aphelinus mali (Haldeman) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) is an effective natural enemy used in China to control the woolly apple aphid (Eriosoma lanigerum [Hausmann]) (WAA). Population of A. mali in China falls into two distinct genetic clades (Shandong clades and Liaoning clades). In the present results, the developmental threshold temperature of the Shandong clade (9.82 ± 1.44 °C) was lower than ...

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...

Aphids commonly harbor bacterial facultative symbionts that have a variety of effects upon their aphid hosts, including defense against hymenopteran parasitoids and fungal pathogens. The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is infected with the symbiont Arsenophonus sp., which has an unknown role in its aphid host. Our research goals were to document the infection fre...

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 ...

In field observations and laboratory experiments, we found that virgin females of the solitary parasitoid Aphelinus asychis did not emit a volatile sex pheromone to attract males, contrary to what has been reported in many other parasitoid species. Instead, we found that virgin females deposited a sex pheromone on the substrate to which males responded by intensively searching on and near the m...