An intracellular symbiotic bacterium was isolated from the flora of a natural clone of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae. The strain was able to grow freely in aerobic conditions on a rich medium containing 1 % of each of the following substrates: glucose, yeast extract and casein peptone. Pure culture was achieved through the use of solid-phase culture on the same medium and the strain was designated CWBI-2.3T. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain CWBI-2.3T was a member of the class Gammaproteobacteria, having high sequence similarity (>99 %) with ‘Candidatus Serratia symbiotica’, the R-type of secondary endosymbiont that is found in several aphid species. As strain CWBI-2.3T ( = LMG 25624T = DSM 23270T) was the first R-type symbiont to be isolated and characterized, it was designated as the type strain of Serratia symbiotica sp. nov.

Semiochemical alginate beads can be considered as efficient slow-release systems in biological control. These formulations could be very useful to attract aphid parasitoids on crop fields.

Aphidius ervi (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is an entomophagous parasitoid known to be an effective parasitoid of several aphid species of economic importance. A reduction of its production cost during mass rearing for inundative release is needed to improve its use in biological control of pests. In these contexts, a careful analysis of its entire development phases within its host is needed. This paper shows that this parasitoid has some characteristics in its embryological development rather complex and different from most other reported insects, which can be phylogenetically very close. First, its yolkless egg allows a high fecundity of the female but force them to hatch from the egg shell rapidly to the host hemocoel. An early cellularisation allowing a rapid differentiation of a serosa membrane seems to confirm this hypothesis. The serosa wraps the developing embryo until the first instar larva stage and invades the host tissues by microvilli projections and form a placenta like structure able to divert host resources and allowing nutrition and respiration of embryo. Such interspecific invasion, at the cellular level, recalls mammal's trophoblasts that anchors maternal uterine wall and underlines the high adaptation of A. ervi to develop in the host body.

Apparent competition, mediated by a shared predator, plays a key role in conservation biological control. Appropriate agroecosystems management may favour this type of indirect interaction. In that context, our aim was to test the effect of rose bush [Rosa rugosa (Thunb.)] strips on the building up of aphid populations and of their natural enemies in adjacent cereal habitats. Several aphid species are currently found on Rosa sp. including Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) for which it is a primary host. Aphid predators and parasitoids may build their populations on the aphid population present on Rosa sp. and later on migrate to wheat field during the cereal aphid infestation. Moreover, the flowers of the rose bushes may provide a source of nectar and pollen to these natural enemies.Our experiment was conducted in three rose margin wheat plots with a strip of rose bushes of R. rugosa and three control plots. Plots were compared during 2 years (2003 and 2004). Aphid, parasitoid and predator densities were recorded from May to the harvest of wheat on rose bushes and in wheat. In 2003, the aphid densities were moderate but in 2004, the population of aphid was very high.Even if predator and parasitoids arrived earlier in rose margin field than in control ones, the presence of rose bushes did not influence the aphid population within the field. Metopolophium dirhodum did not seem to migrate from the rose bushes to wheat. The level of parasitism was weak in rose bushes and the natural enemy population was not different in rose margin wheat and in control plots. The causes of the lack of efficiency of this type of management are discussed as well as the high aphid population in wheat in 2004.

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