The susceptibility of olive cultivars to the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae),\ud has seldom been studied. This article examines factors associated with olive fruit fly infestation\ud of 16 commonly planted Sicilian olive cultivars. Total infestation data were simultaneously correlated\ud with categorical and quantitative factors using ordinal logistic regression. When all factors were\ud included in the analysis, year, sampling date, cultivar, and fruit color were highly significant, but the\ud quantitative factors fruit volume, fruit elongation, and fruit hardness were not. When the analysis\ud was repeated excluding cultivar, all quantitative factors were significant, and elongation and volume\ud were highly significant. Spherical, large, and hard fruit seemed to be preferred by B. oleae over fruit\ud that are elongate, small, and soft. Therefore, fruit color, elongation, volume, and hardness provide\ud useful information regarding the susceptibility of cultivars. In both organic and conventional olive\ud cultivation, information about olive cultivar susceptibility to olive fruit fly will help orchard managers\ud to produce quality oil and table olives while reducing treatments for olive fruit fly control

Accurate identification of parasitoids is crucial for biological control of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomrpha halys (Stål). A recent work by Talamas et al. (2017) revised the Palearctic fauna of Trissolcus Ashmead, egg-parasitoids of stink bugs, and treated numerous species as junior synonyms of T. semistriatus (Nees von Esenbeck). In the present paper, we provide a detailed taxonomic history and treatment of T. semistriatus and the species treated as its synonyms by Talamas et al. (2017) based on examination of primary types, molecular analyses and mating experiments. Trissolcus semistriatus, T. belenus (Walker), T. colemani (Crawford), and T. manteroi (Kieffer) are here recognized as valid and a key to species is provided. The identification tools provided here will facilitate the use of Trissolcus wasps as biological control agents and as the subject of ecological studies.

This study shows that the pathogenicity of wild isolates of B. bassiana differs among the tested R. ferrugineus instars. The low mortality of treated adults supports their use as vectors of B. bassiana as a potential tool for reducing R. ferrugineus populations.

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