Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae) emerges in North America

By

Talamas, Elijah
Herlihy, Megan
Dieckhoff, Christine
Hoelmer, Kim
Buffington, Matthew L.
Bon, Marie-Claude
Weber, Donald

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

Journal of Hymenoptera research

Volume

43

Pages

119-128

Subjects

Biological control , egg parasitoid , Halyomorpha halys , Scelionidae , Trissolcus , Trissolcus japonicus

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Washington, D.C International Society of Hymenopterists

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/JHR.43.4661

 

Abstract

Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) is an Asian egg parasitoid of the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål). It has been under study in U.S. quarantine facilities since 2007 to evaluate its efficacy as a candidate classical biological control agent and its host specificity with regard to the pentatomid fauna native to the United States. A survey of resident egg parasitoids conducted in 2014 with sentinel egg masses of H. halys revealed that T. japonicus was already present in the wild in Beltsville, MD. Seven parasitized egg masses were recovered, of which six yielded live T. japonicus adults. All of these were in a wooded habitat, whereas egg masses placed in nearby soybean fields and an abandoned apple orchard showed no T. japonicus parasitism. How T. japonicus came to that site is unknown and presumed accidental.