Psix striaticeps (Dodd) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae): an Old World parasitoid of stink bug eggs arrives in Florida, USA

Abstract

Psix striaticeps (Dodd) is an egg-parasitoid wasp previously known only from the Old World. We report this species from twelve counties in Florida, which are the first records in the Western Hemisphere. It was collected in yellow cylinder traps and reared from the eggs of three stink bug species: Nezara viridula L., Chinavia marginata (Palisot de Beauvois), and Piezodorus guildinii (Westwood). A COI barcode analysis found a 100% match between the Floridian population and a specimen from South Africa. The prospects of using Ps. striaticeps as a biological control agent against exotic stink bugs are discussed.

A checklist of Platygastridae and Scelionidae (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea) of Iran

“…These publications also suffer from a lack of quality illustrations, and none contain an image from a recorded species to be used for comparison. Psix striaticeps (Dodd, 1920) is an old-world species distributed widely in the Afrotropical and Oriental regions (Johnson & Masner, 1985), that was recently discovered in the USA (Birkmire et al, 2021). Occurrence of this species in Iran is possible, given that Psix was reported from the country (Hashemi Rad, 2008).…”

Natural Enemies and Biological Control of Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) in North America

“…Trissolcus hyalinipennis Rajmohana and Narendran—a parasitoid of Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister)—is another adventive species that has been discovered in the US [ 106 ]. Other discoveries of adventive stink bug egg parasitoids include Gryon aetherium Talamas [ 107 ], Psix striaticeps (Dodd) [ 108 ], and Ooencyrtus nezarae Ishii [ 109 ]. However, it should be noted that O. nezarae is a generalist that parasitizes several heteropteran families, including Pentatomidae [ 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 ], in other parts of the world.…”

Introduction

“…The global importance of stink bugs and their associated parasitoids is evidenced by the remaining eight papers. These include molecular phylogenetic studies that result in the synonymy of Latonius under Trissolcus (Vasiliţa et al 2021); the resurrection of Hadronotus for a portion of Gryon (Talamas et al 2021b); the discovery of adventive parasitoids on two continents (Birkmire et al 2021;Hogg et al 2021;Rojas-Gálvez et al 2021 The increased number of papers in this special issue reflects the growing number of workers in Platygastroidea, which have historically been few in number. Importantly, it also reflects cooperation on a global level, with contributing authors from all inhabited continents.…”