bug-hunter with North Carolina State University have unlock a few secrets in the life cycle of a tiny beneficial white Anglo-Saxon Protestant that parasitizes stinkbug testicle . The finding increase the potential for biologic control ofstinkbugs , reducing the need for insecticides .
Sriyanka Lahiri , a NCSU graduate educatee , received a southerly Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education ( SSARE ) Graduate Student Grant to study the overwintering and nutrition requirements ofTelenomus podisi – a minute parasitic white Anglo-Saxon Protestant that kills stinkbug fertilized egg in ballock masse and replaces them with its own young . NCSU associate professor David Orr was also a project player .
“ The main accent of the project was to comfortably sympathize the biology of the parasitic wasp , ” Orr aver . “ If we can place bottleneck in its life cycle , we can utilize that information to enhance the population of the parasitoid in the field as a biological control . ”
Lahiri saysTelemonus podisiis an significant nativebeneficial insectbecause it attacks several species of stinkbugs , including the chocolate-brown stinkbug , the green stinkbug , the southern immature stinkbug and the Sir Tim Rice stinkbug . Stinkbugs are major harvest pesterer ; however , little is known about the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant ’s home ground preferences and nutritional requirements .
“ Prior literature suggest thatTelemonus podisiretreats into woodland orbit from crop fields for overwintering , but no research is available that identify exactly what those habitat preferences are , so we want to enlarge on that inquiry , ” Lahiri says .
Lahiri and Orr studied likely winter refuge sites for the parasitic wasp , such as Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree bark , leaf litter , due north and Confederate States of America - facing Sir Henry Wood dividing line , dry out fruiting and unfolding bodies , insect cocoon , and fall pine cones . They found that the wasp will winter in both leaf litter and bark because it prefer to hang upside down from the tops of refuges made of natural materials and gravitates to refuges that tender more cover .
“ The phone number of epenthetic WASP , for example , was four times groovy in leaf litter than those overwintering in Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree barque , ” Lahiri order . “ This data , combined with lab study , propose the grandness of woodland field borders with leaf litter from hardwood trees as a refuge area during wintertime for the parasitoids . ”
In the second part of the study , the investigator see the diet of Telemonus podisi , give the insect honey , honeydew and ambrosia from buckwheat flower in the lab and measuring the lifespan and pace of reproduction .
“ Other discipline divvy up with honeydew and parasitoids conclude that honeydew melon — the sugar - rich secernment of aphids — is typically an inferior food source compared to hokey foods and floral nectar , ” Lahiri enounce . “ However , we found that the aphid honeydew is just as good as the flower nectar or honey in condition of enhancing the life-time and rate of replication of the parasitoid . ”
Orr believes the differences in the studies might lie in the means the honeydew melon was presented to the parasitic WASP .
“ We fed them honeydew on live leaves with aphids present as oppose to collecting the honeydew directly from aphid , ” Orr says . “ We are exploring the possibility that microbes on the leaves are changing the nutritionary typography of the honeydew and making it a more viable food root for the wasps . ”
Orr said that such findings are meaning because the honeydew melon , always available from aphid in the environment , might provide a consistent intellectual nourishment generator for the wasp when peak are not available .
“ This information will assist us and other scientists design ways to keep up and enhance the population of these parasitoids on farms , ” Orr allege .
More data on the SSARE - fund labor , “ Potential for Conservation Biological Control of Stink Bugs in North Carolina ” is available in the SARE Projects Database , Project Number GS11 - 104 .
