Insects (2022) 13 (7 - 627)

Filippo Di Giovanni, Renato Ricciardi, Augusto Loni, Pier Luigi Scaramozzino, Giovanni Benelli and Andrea Lucchi (2022)
Back to the wild: The parasitoid community of Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in a grapevine-free natural environment
Insects 13 (7 - 627)
Abstract: The European grapevine moth (EGVM), Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), is one of the major concerns for vineyard managers in the Mediterranean area. It is a polyphagous moth, which develops on a wide variety of host plants, among which the spurge flax, Daphne gnidium (Thymelaeaceae), very likely represents its originary wild host plant. In this study, we investigated the parasitoid complex of L. botrana feeding on D. gnidium during a three-year sampling in a natural reserve in Tuscany, Italy, where this plant is extremely abundant while the grapevine is absent. A total of 24 species of parasitoids were obtained from eggs, larvae, and pupae of EGVM, belonging to 6 families of Hymenoptera and a family of Diptera. The ichneumonid wasp Campoplex capitator was the most abundant larval parasitoid. Four species of the genus Trichogramma were obtained from parasitized eggs during the first year of sampling, with a peak in the parasitisation during the EGVM 3rd generation. Some of the main EGVM parasitoids on spurge flax were also observed in vineyards, although a certain degree of redundancy was observed in the wild, due to several less frequent "satellite" species exploiting the same host. Overall, this research sheds light on the parasitoid community and dynamics of this important moth pest in a grapevine-free natural ecosystem, discussing the possible role of natural areas as ecological reservoirs of pest natural enemies.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Full text of article
Database assignments for author(s): Augusto Loni, Giovanni Benelli, Andrea Lucchi

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

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Lobesia botrana	Grapevine (Vitis)	Italy
Colpoclypeus florus (parasitoid)	Lobesia botrana		Italy
Itoplectis alternans (parasitoid)	Lobesia botrana		Italy
Campoplex capitator (parasitoid)	Lobesia botrana		Italy
Itoplectis tunetana (parasitoid)	Lobesia botrana		Italy
Triclistus pallipes (parasitoid)	Lobesia botrana		Italy