Environmental Entomology (2014) 43, 1327-1332
Stéphane A.P. Derocles, Manuel Plantegenest, Evelyne Turpeau Ait-Ighil E, Bernard Chaubet, Charles-Antoine Dedryver and Anne Le Ralec (2014)
Larval hitch-hiking and adult flight are two ways of Aphidiinae parasitoids long-range dispersal
Environmental Entomology 43 (5), 1327-1332
Abstract: Dispersal strategies and success of pests´ natural enemies widely influence the efficiency of biological control. In this study, we compare two dispersal strategies among Aphidiinae parasitoids: eggs and larvae dispersal through winged aphid flight and active dispersal by adult parasitoids. Using a molecular method applied to a sample of >2,000 winged migratory aphids captured in a suction trap situated in Western France, we assessed the proportion of winged aphids carrying an aphidiine larva. In the six most abundant aphid species, we found an average parasitism rate of migrating aphids close to 1% and identified seven different, mainly generalist, parasitoid species. We also identified the species and the sex of adult Aphidiinae captured by the suction trap based on morphological criteria. We found that dispersing adult parasitoids were almost exclusively female. Parasitoid dispersal strategy seems to be species-dependant but this result needs to be confirmed by an exhaustive analysis of winged aphids captured. We discuss the possible impact of the low parasitism rate of winged aphids on parasitoid population dynamics and the importance of these results in the context of biological control and of the study of food webs between aphids and their natural enemies.
(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): Charles-Antoine Dedryver
Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
transmission/dispersal
population dynamics/epizootiology
