When taxonomy and biological control researchers unite: Species delimitation of Eadya parasitoids (Braconidae) and consequences for classical biological control of invasive paropsine pests of Eucalyptus.

ABSTRACT: The invasive eucalyptus tortoise beetle, Paropsis charybdis, defoliates plantations of Eucalyptus nitens in New Zealand. Recent efforts to identify host specific biological control agents (parasitoids) from Tasmania, Australia, have focused on the larval parasitoid wasp, Eadya paropsidis (Braconidae), first described in 1978. In Tasmania, Eadya has been reared from Paropsisterna agricola (genus abbreviated Pst.), a smaller paropsine that feeds as a larva on juvenile rather than adult foliage of Eucalyptus nitens. To determine which of the many paropsine beetle hosts native to Tasmania are utilized by E. paropsidis, and to rule out the presence of cryptic species, a molecular phylogenetic approach was combined with host data from rearing experiments from multiple locations across six years.

SUBMITTER: Peixoto L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6095507 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature