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Foraging abilities and competitive interactions between two egg parasitoids of bagrada bug in California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2025

Evelyne Hougardy*
Affiliation:
Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA
D. Valle Rogers
Affiliation:
Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA
Brian N. Hogg
Affiliation:
Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Evelyne Hougardy; Email: Evelyne.hougardy@usda.gov

Abstract

Bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is an invasive pest of cole crops in the United States. Because it also feeds on widespread weeds and persists in natural habitats surrounding crop fields, conventional control strategies are often ineffective at providing long-term control. One egg parasitoid, Gryon aetherium Talamas (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), is a promising biological control candidate because of its ability to parasitise B. hilaris buried eggs. Recently, adventive populations of G. aetherium were recovered from sentinel eggs in California along with a native egg parasitoid, Ooencyrtus californicus Girault (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). A better understanding of these parasitoid species’ spatial preference for foraging and their possible competitive interactions will help evaluate their host suppression potential. We compared the foraging abilities of these two parasitoid species for eggs deposited below and above ground. We also investigated the effect of interspecific competition on host suppression and the ability of O. californicus to parasitise eggs previously parasitised by G. aetherium. G. aetherium parasitised naturally and manually buried eggs, whereas O. californicus did not. In another experiment, O. californicus parasitised eggs glued to cards, but not in the presence of sand. Results suggest that G. aetherium may be negatively affected by the presence of O. californicus, and there was a slight but significant reduction in total host mortality when the parasitoids were present together. However, the inability of O. californicus to forage in soil likely limits negative interactions between these two species, and the two parasitoids may ultimately complement each other.

Type
Research Paper
Creative Commons
This is a work of the US Government and is not subject to copyright protection within the United States. Published by Cambridge University Press
Copyright
Copyright © United States Department of Agriculture, 2025

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