Niche differentiation of two pupal parasitoid wasps of Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae): Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae and Spalangia endius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Sheng Zhang ◽  
Yumei Tao ◽  
Yongzhuo Chen ◽  
Pengcheng Liu ◽  
Jialu Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Musca Domestica ◽  
Competitive Ability ◽  
Niche Differentiation ◽  
House Fly ◽  
Parasitoid Wasps ◽  
Parasitoid Species ◽  
Spalangia Endius ◽  
Pupal Parasitoids ◽  
Different Depths

Abstract In nature, competing species often achieve coexistence through niche differentiation. We examined this phenomenon for Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae and Spalangia endius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), two species of pupal parasitoids that are considered biological control agents of house fly, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae). We examined the ability of each species, alone and in combination, to locate host pupae buried at different depths (0, 1, 2, 4, and 6 cm) in three types of substrate (sand, dry wheat bran, and spent fly diet). We then evaluated the competitiveness of each species by allowing first one species, then the other species, to parasitise host individuals within time periods ranging from less than 2 hours to 96 hours of each other. Spalangia endius exhibited greater ability than did P. vindemmiae to locate host pupae buried at depths below one centimetre. Conversely, P. vindemmiae exhibited a greater competitive ability, being more likely to emerge from pupae co-parasitised by S. endius, regardless of oviposition interval or sequence. Our findings suggest that these two parasitoid species coexist through niche differentiation. Our findings also indicate that to increase the effectiveness of biological control, the environmental conditions and risk of interspecific competition should be considered when selecting parasitoid species for release.

Factors Influencing Mating and Oviposition of Black Soldier Flies (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) in a Colony

2002 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffery K. Tomberlin ◽  
D. Craig Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Light Intensity ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Musca Domestica ◽  
Oviposition Preference ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
House Fly ◽  
Black Soldier Fly ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Black Soldier Fly Larvae

Most information on the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (L.), is limited to its use as a biological control and waste management agent. Little is known about its mating and oviposition activities. Latency from emergence to mating and oviposition for colony-reared black soldier flies placed in a 1.5 × 1.5 × 3 m nylon cage located in a greenhouse was determined. Sixty-nine percent of mating occurred 2 d after eclosion and 70% of oviposition 4 d after eclosion. Time of day and light intensity significantly correlated with mating (r2 = 0.49; P < 0.0001), while time of day, temperature, and humidity significantly correlated with oviposition (r2 = 0.58; P < 0.0001). Latency after emergence significantly correlated with mating (r2 = 0.99; P < 0.0001) and oviposition (r2 = 0.99; P < 0.0001). A second experiment was conducted to examine oviposition preference of the black soldier fly. Adults were allowed to oviposit in Gainesville house fly, Musca domestica L., larval media with and without 5-d-old black soldier fly larvae. Based on sign non-parametric Mests, numbers of egg clutches deposited in each treatment were not significantly different.

A Field-Relevant Concentration of the Insecticide Imidacloprid Affects Grooming, Locomotion, and Longevity in the Biological Control Agent Spalangia endius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 566-571
Author(s):  
Edwin R Burgess ◽  
B H King
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Biological Control Agent ◽  
Control Agent ◽  
House Fly ◽  
Low Concentration ◽  
Relevant Concentration ◽  
Spalangia Endius ◽  
Foreign Materials

Abstract Foreign materials like insecticides may increase grooming in insects; and generally, grooming may be expected to reduce effects of insecticides, but this may not be the case when grooming involves the mouth and hence a risk of ingestion. To examine this, female Spalangia endius, a wasp that parasitizes filth fly pupae, were exposed to a surface coated with a low concentration of imidacloprid or not. Their mouthparts were sealed or not to determine whether sealing is a useful method for examining effects of mouth grooming. Wasps mouth-groomed more frequently while exposed to imidacloprid than when not. However, imidacloprid did not increase the number of times that a wasp groomed the rest of her body, and this was true regardless of whether or not her mouthparts were sealed. While exposed to imidacloprid, wasps spent less time locomoting only if their mouthparts were not sealed. Having been exposed to imidacloprid also decreased subsequent longevity, from 9 to 7 d. These effects of imidacloprid on grooming, locomotion, and longevity occurred despite exposure being for just 5 min and to only 2% of the amount that will be present in an area immediately after house fly baits are scattered at their recommended coverage. This is such a low amount that, with 48 h of constant exposure, mortality of these wasps is only 10%. Having mouthparts sealed decreased locomotion and longevity regardless of exposure to imidacloprid. Thus, sealing mouthparts is not useful for measuring effects of mouth grooming.

Biological control of house flies Musca domestica and stable flies Stomoxys calcitrans (Diptera: Muscidae) by means of inundative releases of Spalangia cameroni (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 555-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Skovgård ◽  
G. Nachman
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Musca Domestica ◽  
Biological Control Agent ◽  
Control Agent ◽  
House Fly ◽  
Stomoxys Calcitrans ◽  
Stable Fly ◽  
House Flies ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Stable Flies

AbstractThe efficacy of the pupal parasitoid Spalangia cameroni Perkins as a biological control agent was tested against house flies Musca domestica Linnaeus and stable flies Stomoxys calcitrans (Linnaeus) in one dairy cattle and two pig installations in Denmark. Weekly releases of S. cameroni from April through to September–October 1999 and 2000 resulted in significant suppressions of house fly populations to below nuisance level, whereas no effect on stable flies was found. Parasitism was significantly higher in the release years compared to the control years, but was below 25% averaged over the fly season for each farm. A statistical model based on a functional relationship between the innate capacity of increase of the two fly species and three explanatory variables (air temperature, fly density and parasitism) provided a fairly good fit to data with the abundances of house flies and stable flies explained mostly by temperature, but intra- and interspecific competition, and parasitism had a significant effect as well. Overall, the model was capable of explaining 14% and 6.6% of the total variation in data for house fly and stable fly, respectively. Spalangia cameroni was the predominant parasitoid to emerge from exposed house fly pupae, but from mid summer onwards Muscidifurax raptor Girault & Sanders (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) was also quite common. The study indicated that biological control of house flies can be an efficient alternative to chemical control.

scholarly journals Natural host preferences of parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) on synanthropic flies

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Khoobdel ◽  
Hossein Sobati ◽  
Omid Dehghan ◽  
Kamran Akbarzadeh ◽  
Ehsan Radi
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Musca Domestica ◽  
Natural Enemy ◽  
Lucilia Sericata ◽  
Natural Host ◽  
Parasitoid Wasps ◽  
Host Preferences

Synanthropic flies are members of order Diptera and considered as medical and veterinary pests. In this study, parasitoid wasps were determined and their natural host preferences in order to select a suitable agent for biological control of flies. The pupae of three species of flies; Musca domestica, Lucilia sericata and Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis were used as hosts for natural parasitoids. For this issue, as much as 50 pupae of each fly species put in three separate dishes with covered top by a net. These dishes were placed in the field to attract parasitoid wasps. The most parasitic rate was related to N. vitripennis (%17.2). Host preferences of N. vitripennis on M. domestica pupae were higher than observed parasitism on L. sericata and S. haemorrhoidalis. The emerging rate of two parasitoids; P. vindemmiae and S. nigroaenea were one per host pupae. According to the result, N. vitripennis can be an appropriate candidate for use as natural enemy which expected to be effective in controlling various species of synanthropic flies. Therefore, S. nigroaenea was more suitable to biological control of housefly populations.

scholarly journals Estimation of the competitiveness of Ephedrus plagiator in relation to other parasitoids from the subfamily Aphidiinae

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
Marijana Ilic-Milosevic ◽  
Olivera Petrovic-Obradovic ◽  
Sasa Stankovic ◽  
Maja Lazarevic ◽  
Aleksandra Trajkovic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Competitive Ability ◽  
Aphis Fabae ◽  
Parasitoid Wasps ◽  
Distributional Pattern ◽  
Self Organizing Map ◽  
Parasitoid Species ◽  
Lysiphlebus Testaceipes ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
Competitive Species

The parasitoid species Ephedrus plagiator (Nees, 1811) (Hymenoptera: Aphidiinae) is one of the most important biological agents against pest aphids. We investigated whether this species was in competition with some other aphidiine species for the same hosts. We thus examined its potential in biological programs to control aphids. We applied an unsupervised artificial neural network, a self-organizing map (SOM), which classified the competitive parasitoids into seven groups. The SOM also visualized the distributional pattern of 31 parasitoid wasps along the neural network, revealing their competitive ability in relation to E. plagiator. Indicator value (IndVal) analysis quantified the competitive ability and showed that the most competitive species with regard to E. plagiator were Lysiphlebus testaceipes (Cresson, 1880), L. fabarum (Marshall 1896), L. cardui (Marshall 1896) and Binodoxys angelicae (Haliday, 1833). These species appeared in four different SOM groups and mostly parasitized the Aphis fabae Scopoli, 1763 (Hemiptera: Aphididae) host.

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