Annual Review of Entomology (2023) 68, 13-29

Stefano Colazza, Ezio Peri and Antonino Cusumano (2023)
Chemical ecology of floral resources in conservation biological control
Annual Review of Entomology 68, 13-29
Abstract: Conservation biological control aims to enhance populations of natural enemies of insect pests in crop habitats, typically by intentional provision of flowering plants as food resources. Ideally, these flowering plants should be inherently attractive to natural enemies to ensure that they are frequently visited. We review the chemical ecology of floral resources in a conservation biological control context, with a focus on insect parasitoids. We highlight the role of floral volatiles as semiochemicals that attract parasitoids to the food resources. The discovery that nectar-inhabiting microbes can be hidden players in mediating parasitoid responses to flowering plants has highlighted the complexity of the interactions between plants and parasitoids. Furthermore, because food webs in agroecosystems do not generally stop at the third trophic level, we also consider responses of hyperparasitoids to floral resources. We thus provide an overview of floral compounds as semiochemicals from a multitrophic perspective, and we focus on the remaining questions that need to be addressed to move the field forward.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Stefano Colazza, Antonino Cusumano

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
environment/habitat manipulation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Cotesia vestalis (parasitoid)