fauna of the the aphid parasitoids at southern parts of the zagros submountains, and their host associations have been investigated. a total of 24 parasitoid species were identified in association with 30 aphids on 36 host plant species, representing more than 80 tritrophic associations (parasitoid-aphid-plant). aphidius avenae haliday is newly reported from iran. generally, the area of souther...

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...

Animals often engage in mutualistic associations with microorganisms that protect them from predation, parasitism or pathogen infection. Studies of these interactions in insects have mostly focussed on the direct effects of symbiont infection on natural enemies without studying community-wide effects. Here, we explore the effect of a defensive symbiont on population dynamics and species extinct...

A 12-acre field at the Delta Branch Station in Clarkedale, AR, was subdivided into 16 plots, each ~ 0.75 acre in size (56 rows x 63 m). The experiment consisted of four treatments: (1) untreated control, (2) fungicide treated, (3) conventional threshold, and (4) experimental threshold; with four replicates in a Latin square design. The fungicide treatment was used in an attempt to disrupt the a...

An experiment was conducted to test whether parasitoid resistance within a single clonal line of pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) might increase after exposure to the parasitoid wasp Aphidius ervi. Any change in resistance was expected to occur through an increase in the density of protective symbiotic bacteria rather than genetic change within the aphid or the bacterial symbiont. Six aphid line...

Understanding how resource diversification affects ecological interactions, food web structure and ecosystem functioning is essential in both fundamental applied ecology. While plant strategies (either in-field or around-field) are often proposed agricultural landscapes as practices to improve the biological control of herbivores by natural enemies, results remain variable unsure. Here, we stud...

The drive towards a more sustainable and integrated approach to pest management has engendered a renewed interest in conservation biological control, the role of natural enemy communities and their interactions with prey. Monoclonal antibodies have provided significant advances in enhancing our knowledge of trophic interactions and can be employed to help quantify predation on target species. T...

The pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris has been shown to produce an increasing proportion of winged morphs among its offspring when exposed to natural enemies, in particular hoverfly larvae, lacewing larvae, adult and larval ladybirds and aphidiid parasitoids. While these results suggest that wing induction in the presence of predators and parasitoids is a general response of the pea aphid, t...

In the north central United States, populations of the exotic soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), are highly variable across space, complicating effective aphid management. In this study we examined relationships of plant nutrients, landscape structure, and natural enemies with soybean aphid abundance across Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, representing the ...

The roots of most land plants are colonised by mycorrhizal fungi that provide mineral nutrients in exchange for carbon. Here, we show that mycorrhizal mycelia can also act as a conduit for signalling between plants, acting as an early warning system for herbivore attack. Insect herbivory causes systemic changes in the production of plant volatiles, particularly methyl salicylate, making bean pl...