SignificanceDecades of research have fostered the now-prevalent assumption that noncrop habitat facilitates better pest suppression by providing shelter and food resources to the predators and parasitoids of crop pests. Based on our analysis of the largest pest-control database of its kind, noncrop habitat surrounding farm fields does affect multiple dimensions of pest control, but the actual responses of pests and enemies are highly variable across geographies and cropping systems. Because noncrop habitat often does not enhance biological control, more information about local farming contexts is needed before habitat conservation can be recommended as a viable pest-suppression strategy. Consequently, when pest control does not benefit from noncrop vegetation, farms will need to be carefully comanaged for competing conservation and production objectives.

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield–related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of species richness, abundance, and dominance for pollination; biological pest control; and final yields in the context of ongoing land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem services in addition to and independent of abundance and dominance. Up to 50% of the negative effects of landscape simplification on ecosystem services was due to richness losses of service-providing organisms, with negative consequences for crop yields. Maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystem service providers is therefore vital to sustain the flow of key agroecosystem benefits to society.

79 40 INRA, UR 1115, Plantes et Systèmes de culture horticoles, ABSTRACT 138

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Aphid parasitoids of the subfamily Aphidiinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) of northeastern Iran were studied in this paper. A total of 29 species are keyed and illustrated with line drawings. The aphidiines presented in this work have been reared from 42 aphid host taxa occurring on 49 plant taxa from a total of 33 sampling sites. Sixty-six aphidiine-aphid-plant associations are presented. Trioxys metacarpalis sp. nov. from Chaitaphis tenuicaudata Nevsky (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on Kochia scoparia, is described. The species diversity based on the comparative faunistic analysis is discussed.

A regional survey of the complex tritrophic associations (parasitoid-aphid-plant) of aphid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) was carried out to determine and explore the patterns of those associations in various types of environments. Here, we present trophic relationship patterns of the five aphid parasitoid species in crop and noncrop habitats in southeastern Europe, and we contrast them in a regional (Mediterranean [MED] versus continental [CNT]) context. In total, 79 aphid host taxa were identified in this survey. Forty-two of these were recorded from noncrop plants only, 21 from crop plants only, and 18 were present on both types of plants. This means that approximately 74% of all the parasitoid-aphid trophic interactions that support the persistence of the five selected parasitoids are entirely (54%) or partially (20%) associated with noncrop plants. The correspondence of parasitoid-aphid combinations among habitat/region combinations is very high and specific. Our results suggest that Mediterranean and continental regions are clearly distinguished by a contrasting pattern of trophic interactions in crop habitats, whereas the noncrop habitats contribute in lesser degree to these differences. For the crop/noncrop breakdown, the number of nonspecific interactions was larger than expected in crop habitats, whereas in noncrop habitats the abundance of partially specific and specific interactions was larger. The analysis of variance for the regional and habitat distribution of mean aphid host number per parasitoid was highly significant. When both regions were analyzed separately, the parasitoid/crop design showed significant parasitoid effects as well as interactions, whereas the habitat effect was not significant for the Mediterranean region and highly so for the continental region. This highly complex pattern suggests that the mean number of parasitized aphid species is not distributed among parasitoids, regions, and habitats in a similar manner. Even with these complexities taken into account, the overall trend is that noncrop habitats support more parasitoid-aphid combinations and more so in the continental than in Mediterranean regions, although not always statistically significant. As mentioned, large number of noncrop aphid hosts, especially for Lysiphlebus fabarum (Marshall), Praon volucre (Haliday) and Aphidius colemani Viereck, can significantly enhance the population buildup for these important parasitoids around agroecosystems. These facts can be important in biological aphid pest control in the region. Although not easily quantified, the overall positive effects of larger parasitoid diversity in noncrop habitats are undoubtedly related to the distribution and structure of noncrop habitat patches in agroecosystems at a landscape scale.

It is assumed that wild honey bees have become largely extinct across Europe since the 1980s, following the introduction of exotic ectoparasitic mite (Varroa) and the associated spillover of various pathogens. However, several recent studies reported on unmanaged colonies that survived the Varroa mite infestation. Herewith, we present another case of unmanaged, free-living population of honey bees in SE Europe, a rare case of feral bees inhabiting a large and highly populated urban area: Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. We compiled a massive data-set derived from opportunistic citizen science (>1300 records) during the 2011–2017 period and investigated whether these honey bee colonies and the high incidence of swarms could be a result of a stable, self-sustaining feral population (i.e., not of regular inflow of swarms escaping from local managed apiaries), and discussed various explanations for its existence. We also present the possibilities and challenges associated with the detection and effective monitoring of feral/wild honey bees in urban settings, and the role of citizen science in such endeavors. Our results will underpin ongoing initiatives to better understand and support naturally selected resistance mechanisms against the Varroa mite, which should contribute to alleviating current threats and risks to global apiculture and food production security.

Species range expansions are crucial for understanding niche formation and the interaction with the environment. Here, we studied the bumblebee Bombus haematurus Kriechbaumer, 1870, a species historically distributed from northern Serbia through northern Iran which has very recently started expanding northwestward into Central Europe without human-mediated dispersal (i.e., it is a natural spread). After updating the global distribution of this species, we investigated if niche shifts took place during this range expansion between newly colonized and historical areas. In addition, we have explored which climatic factors may have favored the natural range expansion of the species. Our results indicated that Bombus haematurus has colonized large territories in 7 European countries outside the historical area in the period from the 1980s to 2018, a natural expansion over an area that equals 20% of the historical distribution. In addition, this bumblebee performs generalism in flower visitation and it occurs in different habitats, although a preference for forested areas clearly emerges. The land-use associated with the species in the colonized areas is similar to the historical distribution, indicating that no major niche shifts occurred during the spread. Furthermore, in recently colonized localities, the range expansion was associated with warming temperatures during the winter and also during both queen overwintering and emergence phases. These findings document a case of natural range expansion due to environmental change rather than due to niche shifts, and specifically they suggest that warmer winters could be linked to the process of natural colonization of new areas.