Biological Control of Insect Pests: Southeast Asian Prospects - EcoPort

76 Biological Control of Insect Pests: Southeast Asian Prospects
temperature and humidity on the development of L. fabarum in A. gossypii
and A. craccivora has been reported by Davletshina and Gomolitskia (1975)
and methods for its mass production by Tregubenko and Popushoi (1987).
Lysiphlebus testaceipes Hym.: Aphidiidae
This parasitoid has a natural range extending from North America through
Central America to the northern parts of South America. It is now known
also from Hawaii, Australia, Europe and East Africa. It is the commonest
native parasitoid of aphids in Mexico (Starù and Remaudi re 1982). It has a
very wide host range, having been reported from at least 79 aphid species (32
in the genus Aphis) in 32 genera (Carver 1984).
Oviposition generally occurs in the abdomen of half grown and
unparasitised hosts and, when hosts are scarce, more than one egg may be
deposited (Sekhar 1957). Up to 254 eggs may be laid. It is heavily attacked
by hyperparasitoids in its natural range (eg. 6 species when attacking Aphis
gossypii (Schlinger and Hall 1960) or 7 species (Oatman et al. 1983b)).
L. testaceipes was present in Australia (New South Wales and South
Australia) prior to its introduction as a biological control agent and attacked
an indigenous aphid Aphis acaenovinae (Starù and Carver 1979).
There are many examples to demonstrate that L. testaceipes consists of
biotypes. Thus, Californian L. testaceipes is unable to complete its
development on Aphis spiraecola, whereas a Cuban strain does so
successfully. The Californian strain did not attack Aphis nerii after
introduction to Hawaii, although a Mexican strain subsequently introduced
did so (Starù 1970). Then again, the biotype from A. craccivora on Robinia
pseudacacia does not parasitise this same aphid on Phaseolus vulgaris;
another biotype prefers A. gossypii on squash to this same aphid on hibiscus
(Sekhar 1960; Tremblay and Barbagallo 1982). The effectiveness of
Lysiphlebus testaceipes as a parasitoid on A. gossypii is thus significantly
affected by the host plant on which the aphid is feeding (Steinberg et al.
1993).
L. testaceipes is reported to attack A. gossypii in Cuba (Starù 1981),
Mexico (Starù and Remaudi re 1982) and, after introduction to Europe, in
Spain, France and Italy. In Europe it now attacks more than 26 aphid species
including A. craccivora and A. gossypii, often with high levels of
parasitisation (Starù et al. 1988a,b,c).
Lysiphlebus testaceipes was successfully introduced in 1923 from
California to Hawaii for the biological control of aphids, including Aphis
craccivora and A. gossypii. It soon spread widely throughout the islands,
attacking these and other aphid species. In 1965, a further introduction from
Mexico was made to control the oleander aphid Aphis nerii which had
previously escaped attack. By 1927 several hyperparasitoids were recorded