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Insects
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Balancing Nature: Biological Control Introductions for Invasive Insect Pests and...
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Special Issue "Balancing Nature: Biological Control Introductions for Invasive Insect Pests and Weeds"

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Pest and Vector Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2023 | Viewed by 3944

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mohsen M. Ramadan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Division of Plant Industry, Honolulu, HI, USA
Interests: classical and augmentative biological control; searches and introductions of natural enemies of insect pests and weeds; insect biology and mass rearing of fruit fly parasitoids
Dr. Xingeng Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
USDA-ARS Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit, Newark, DE, USA
Interests: biological control; natural enemy biology; insect behavior and ecology; invasive species ecology and management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Insects and weeds become problematic when accidentally introduced to new environment without their essential natural enemies that keep them in check in native regions. Introductions of biological control agents to such new invaded areas has historically been the main method for environmentally benign nonchemical approaches to reducing pest populations in the management of invasive insect pests and weeds.

This issue invites original articles and reviews for the overall improvement of biological control knowledge of insect pests and weeds. This includes discovery of pest origin, foreign exploration for natural enemies in native lands of pest, importation to containment facilities, pre-release evaluations (e.g., efficacy, host specificity, and climatic adaptability), mass rearing for field releases, and release and documentation of establishments and impacts of introduced natural enemies. Recent cases of importation biological control, success and failure of natural enemy introductions, biology, ecology, behavior, and description of new species of natural enemies will be covered.

Dr. Mohsen M. Ramadan
Dr. Xingeng Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • insect predator
  • insect parasitoid
  • entomopathogen
  • exploration
  • importation
  • host specificity
  • mass rearing
  • pre-release
  • post-release
  • weed biocontrol agent

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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Article
Surveys of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and Its Host Fruits and Associated Parasitoids in Northeastern China
by
Jue Wang
,
Yanan Zheng
,
Lichun Fan
and
Weitao Wang
Insects 2022, 13(4), 390; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13040390 - 15 Apr 2022
Viewed by 1469
Abstract
Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), is a worldwide quarantine pest that is currently undergoing a rapid range expansion in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa. It feeds and breeds on soft-skinned fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, and cherries, and can cause significant [...] Read more.
Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), is a worldwide quarantine pest that is currently undergoing a rapid range expansion in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa. It feeds and breeds on soft-skinned fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, and cherries, and can cause significant economic losses to fruit production. This study investigated the occurrence of D. suzukii and its wild host fruits and parasitoids in Liaoning, Northeast China for the first time. Sentinel traps were used to monitor D. suzukii adults, and suspected fruits were collected weekly in four different locations (Wafangdian, Faku, Fengcheng, and Shenyang). The results showed that D. suzukii were distributed in the sweet soft-skinned fruit-production areas of Liaoning, and raspberry was the most infested fruit. During the field survey, four species of wild berries from non-crop habitats were found infested by D. suzukii, and two species of parasitoids (Leptopilina japonica and Asobara japonica) were collected. D. suzukii adult-population dynamics throughout the survey period (June to October) were similar in different survey locations; adult fly populations increased and peaked in August, and then declined until the fly was no longer detectable in October. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Balancing Nature: Biological Control Introductions for Invasive Insect Pests and Weeds)
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Article
Demography and Fitness of Anastatus japonicus Reared from Antheraea pernyi as a Biological Control Agent of Caligula japonica
by
Xiao-Yan Wei
,
Yong-Ming Chen
,
Xingeng Wang
,
Rui-E Lv
and
Lian-Sheng Zang
Insects 2022, 13(4), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13040349 - 31 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1306
Abstract
Japanese giant silkworm (JGS), Caligula japonica Moore, is an emerging defoliator pest of forest and fruit trees in East Asia, causing severe economic losses. To develop a cost-effective biological control program against JGS, we used eggs of the Chinese oak silkworm (COS) Antheraea [...] Read more.
Japanese giant silkworm (JGS), Caligula japonica Moore, is an emerging defoliator pest of forest and fruit trees in East Asia, causing severe economic losses. To develop a cost-effective biological control program against JGS, we used eggs of the Chinese oak silkworm (COS) Antheraea pernyi Guérin-Méneville as an alternative host to rear the most dominant JGS egg parasitoid Anastatus japonicus Ashmead. We compared the demographic parameters and total parasitism (killing) rates of A. japonicus parasitizing JGS and COS eggs using an age-stage, two-sex life table method. The results showed that A. japonicus performed differently on these two different hosts. Anastatus japonicus reared from COS eggs had a higher fecundity (369.7 eggs per female) and a longer oviposition period (35.9 days) on the COS than JGS eggs (180.9 eggs; 24.0 days). Consequently, A. japonicus parasitizing COS eggs had a higher intrinsic rate of increase (r = 0.1466 d−1), finite rate of increase (λ = 1.1579 d−1) and net reproductive rate (R0 = 284.9 offspring) than those parasitizing JGS eggs (r = 0.1419 d−1, λ = 1.1525 d−1, R0 = 150.0 offspring). The total net parasitism rate (the number of parasitized hosts in which the parasitoids successfully developed) of A. japonicus parasitizing COS eggs was 284.9, significantly higher than that of A. japonicus parasitizing JGS eggs (150.0), while the net non-effective parasitism rate (the number of parasitized hosts in which the parasitoids failed to develop) of the former (0.0) was significantly lower than that of the latter (9.6). These results suggest that A. japonicus can be efficiently reared on the alternative (or factitious) COS eggs, and the reared parasitoids have a high biological control potential against the target JGS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Balancing Nature: Biological Control Introductions for Invasive Insect Pests and Weeds)
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