Host stage preference and performance of Dolichogenidea gelechiidivoris (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a candidate for classical biological control of Tuta absoluta in Africa

Endophytic fungi protect tomato and nightshade plants against Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) through a hidden friendship and cryptic battle

“…Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replicates per experiment 23 . The success rate of fungal endophyte colonization (%) of host plant parts was calculated as follows: www.nature.com/scientificreports/ sleeved Perspex cages (40 × 40 × 45 cm) and were fed ad libitum with 10% honey solution placed to the top side of each cage as food source 76 . Four potted tomato plants were placed in the cages for oviposition.…”

“…The pupae were collected from the plastic containers using a fine camel hair-brush and placed inside a clean plastic container for adult emergence. The colony was rejuvenated every three months through infusion, with infested tomato leaves collected from the field to reduce inbreeding 13,76 . All the treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design and the experiment replicated four times.…”

NaturalizedDolichogenidea gelechiidivorisMarsh (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) complement the resident parasitoid complex ofTuta absoluta(Meyrick) (Lepidopera:Gelechiidae) in Spain

“…In Colombia, mass rearing protocols were developed to release this parasitoid for T. absoluta control (Morales et al 2013). Furthermore, in 2017 it was imported to Kenia from Peru to contribute to the control of T. absoluta in Africa (Aigbedion-Atalor et al 2020). Another species, Dolichogenidea appellator (Telenga) (= Dolichogenidea litae (Nixon)), was occasionally found parasitizing T. absoluta in the same area as the present study (Gabarra et al, 2014), and was found also associated with this pest in Sudan (Mansour et al 2018).…”

“…Furthermore, the interaction between D. gelechiidivoris and predatory mirids will be also of interest. These predators prefer to prey on eggs but may also feed on young T. absoluta larvae (Arnó et al 2009; Urbaneja et al 2009), which are the preferred host instar of the parasitoid (Aigbedion-Atalor et al 2020). Nesidiocoris tenuis did not prey on nor did reduce the oviposition by D. gelechiidivoris , and the efficacy of both natural enemies together on T. absoluta was significantly higher than either natural enemy alone (Aigbedion-Atalor 2020).…”

The pest kill rate of thirteen natural enemies as aggregate evaluation criterion of their biological control potential of Tuta absoluta

“…In Europe, several larval parasitoids have been studied, including B. nigricans and N. tutae 8 . Recent studies in Africa concentrated on D. gelechiidivoris, which was imported from Peru into Kenya 51 , and on B. nigricans and Dolichogenidea appellator (Telenga) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) 46 . The host kill rate of the Neochrysocharis formosa (Westwood) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) was recently published 52 , but important basic information to judge the quality of the data was lacking in the paper and contact with the authors did not result in the provision of the raw data used for calculation of the kill rate by us.…”